IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gat/wpaper/0405.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Structural Analysis of the Correlated Random Coefficient Wage Regression Model

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Belzil

    (GATE CNRS)

  • Jörgen Hansen

Abstract

We estimate a finite mixture dynamic programming model of schooling decisions in which the log wage regression function is set in a random coefficient framework. We also analyze the determinants of 3 counterfactual experiments (a college attendance subsidy, a high school graduation subsidy and an overall decrease in the rate of time preference) and examine a proposition often claimed in the “Average Treatment Effects” literature; that the discrepancy between OLS and IV estimates of the returns to schooling may be explained by the relatively higher returns experienced by those affected by exogenous policy changes. We find that the average return to experience upon entering the labor market (0.0863) exceeds the average return to schooling (0.0576) and we find more cross-sectional variability in the returns to experience than in the returns to schooling. Labor market skills (as opposed to taste for schooling) appear to be the prime factor explaining schooling attainments. We find little evidence in favor of a positive correlation between reactions induced by an exogenous experiment and the individual specific returns to schooling.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Belzil & Jörgen Hansen, 2004. "A Structural Analysis of the Correlated Random Coefficient Wage Regression Model," Working Papers 0405, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
  • Handle: RePEc:gat:wpaper:0405
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: ftp://ftp.gate.cnrs.fr/RePEc/2004/0405.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rust, John, 1987. "Optimal Replacement of GMC Bus Engines: An Empirical Model of Harold Zurcher," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(5), pages 999-1033, September.
    2. Willis, Robert J & Rosen, Sherwin, 1979. "Education and Self-Selection," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 7-36, October.
    3. Stephen V. Cameron & James J. Heckman, 1998. "Life Cycle Schooling and Dynamic Selection Bias: Models and Evidence for Five Cohorts of American Males," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(2), pages 262-333, April.
    4. Kenneth I. Wolpin & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2000. "Natural "Natural Experiments" in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(4), pages 827-874, December.
    5. Pedro Carneiro & Karsten T. Hansen & James J. Heckman, 2003. "Estimating Distributions of Treatment Effects with an Application to the Returns to Schooling and Measurement of the Effects of Uncertainty on College," NBER Working Papers 9546, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. James J. Heckman & Edward Vytlacil, 2005. "Structural Equations, Treatment Effects, and Econometric Policy Evaluation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(3), pages 669-738, May.
    7. Belzil, Christian & Hansen, Jörgen, 2003. "Structural Estimates of the Intergenerational Education Correlation," IZA Discussion Papers 973, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Eckstein, Z. & Wolpin, K.I., 1997. "Youth Employment and Academic Perfomance in High School," Papers 24-97, Tel Aviv.
    9. Thierry Magnac & David Thesmar, 2002. "Identifying Dynamic Discrete Decision Processes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(2), pages 801-816, March.
    10. V. Joseph Hotz & Robert A. Miller, 1993. "Conditional Choice Probabilities and the Estimation of Dynamic Models," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 497-529.
    11. Carneiro, Pedro & Hansen, Karsten T. & Heckman, James J., 2003. "Estimating Distributions of Treatment Effects with an Application to the Returns to Schooling and Measurement of the Effects of Uncertainty on College Choice," IZA Discussion Papers 767, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    13. Imbens, Guido W & Angrist, Joshua D, 1994. "Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 467-475, March.
    14. James J. Heckman & Edward J. Vytlacil, 2000. "Local Instrumental Variables," NBER Technical Working Papers 0252, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Christian Belzil & Jörgen Hansen, 2002. "Unobserved Ability and the Return to Schooling," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(5), pages 2075-2091, September.
    16. Charles F. Manski & John V. Pepper, 2000. "Monotone Instrumental Variables, with an Application to the Returns to Schooling," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(4), pages 997-1012, July.
    17. Jean-Pierre Florens & James Heckman & Costas Meghir & Edward Vytlacil, 2002. "Instrumental variables, local instrumental variables and control functions," CeMMAP working papers CWP15/02, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    18. Card, David, 1999. "The causal effect of education on earnings," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 30, pages 1801-1863, Elsevier.
    19. Keane, Michael P & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1997. "The Career Decisions of Young Men," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(3), pages 473-522, June.
    20. Stephen V. Cameron & James J. Heckman, 1998. "Life Cycle Schooling and Dynamic Selection Bias: Models and Evidence for Five Cohorts," NBER Working Papers 6385, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Costas Meghir & Mårten Palme, 2001. "The effect of a social experiment in education," IFS Working Papers W01/11, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    22. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Keueger, 1991. "Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(4), pages 979-1014.
    23. Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 1997. "On two stage least squares estimation of the average treatment effect in a random coefficient model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 129-133, October.
    24. Robert M. Sauer, 2004. "Educational Financing and Lifetime Earnings," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(4), pages 1189-1216.
    25. Card, David, 2001. "Estimating the Return to Schooling: Progress on Some Persistent Econometric Problems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(5), pages 1127-1160, September.
    26. Bjorklund, Anders & Moffitt, Robert, 1987. "The Estimation of Wage Gains and Welfare Gains in Self-selection," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(1), pages 42-49, February.
    27. Edward Vytlacil, 2002. "Independence, Monotonicity, and Latent Index Models: An Equivalence Result," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(1), pages 331-341, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tillmann Heidelk, 2019. "The Returns to Education in the Context of a Natural Disaster: Evidence from the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti," Working Papers ECARES 2019-17, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. Zamarro, Gema, 2010. "Accounting for heterogeneous returns in sequential schooling decisions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 156(2), pages 260-276, June.
    3. Liu, Xingfei, 2014. "Educational Attainment of Second-Generation Immigrants: A U.S.-Canada Comparison," IZA Discussion Papers 8685, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Belzil, Christian, 2007. "The return to schooling in structural dynamic models: a survey," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 1059-1105, July.
    5. Christian Belzil, 2008. "Testing the Specification of the Mincer Wage Equation," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 91-92, pages 427-451.
    6. Christian Belzil, 2006. "Subjective beliefs and Schooling Decisions," Post-Print halshs-00265466, HAL.
    7. Belzil, Christian & Hansen, Jörgen & Kristensen, Nicolai, 2008. "Estimating Complementarity between Education and Training," IZA Discussion Papers 3882, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Christian Belzil & Jörgen Hansen, 2002. "Unobserved Ability and the Return to Schooling," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(5), pages 2075-2091, September.
    9. Nielsen, Chantal Pohl, 2007. "Immigrant overeducation : evidence from Denmark," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4234, The World Bank.
    10. Christian Belzil & Jörgen Hansen, 2004. "Earnings Dispersion, Risk Aversion And Education," Research in Labor Economics, in: Accounting for Worker Well-Being, pages 335-358, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    11. Belzil, Christian & Hansen, Jörgen & Liu, Xingfei, 2011. "Dynamic Skill Accumulation, Comparative Advantages, Compulsory Schooling, and Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 6167, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Heckman, James J. & Lochner, Lance J. & Todd, Petra E., 2006. "Earnings Functions, Rates of Return and Treatment Effects: The Mincer Equation and Beyond," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & F. Welch (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 7, pages 307-458, Elsevier.
    13. Gendron-Carrier, Nicolas, 2023. "Prior Work Experience and Entrepreneurship: The Careers of Young Entrepreneurs," IZA Discussion Papers 16145, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Ge, Suqin, 2013. "Estimating the returns to schooling: Implications from a dynamic discrete choice model," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 92-105.
    15. Biewen, Martin & (neé Tapalaga), Madalina Thiele, 2020. "Early tracking, academic vs. vocational training, and the value of ‘second-chance’ options," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    16. Belzil, Christian & Hansen, Jörgen, 2010. "The Distinction between Dictatorial and Incentive Policy Interventions and its Implication for IV Estimation," IZA Discussion Papers 4835, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Holzner, Christian & Launov, Andrey, 2010. "Search equilibrium and social and private returns to education," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 39-59, January.
    18. John K. Dagsvik & TorbjØrn HÆgeland & Arvid Raknerud, 2011. "Estimating the returns to schooling: a likelihood approach based on normal mixtures," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 613-640, June.
    19. Belzil, Christian & Hansen, Jörgen, 2005. "A Structural Analysis of the Correlated Random Coefficient Wage Regression Model with an Application to the OLS-IV Puzzle," IZA Discussion Papers 1585, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Burgess, Simon, 2016. "Human Capital and Education: The State of the Art in the Economics of Education," IZA Discussion Papers 9885, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Belzil, Christian & Hansen, Jörgen, 2008. "Calibration and IV Estimation of a Wage Outcome Equation in a Dynamic Environment," IZA Discussion Papers 3528, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    22. Christian Belzil & Jorgen Hansen & Xingfei Liu, 2017. "Dynamic skill accumulation, education policies, and the return to schooling," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 8(3), pages 895-927, November.
    23. Belzil, Christian & Hansen, Jörgen, 2012. "The Timing of Earnings Sampling over the Life-Cycle and IV Identification of the Return to Schooling," IZA Discussion Papers 6724, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christian Belzil, 2008. "Testing the Specification of the Mincer Wage Equation," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 91-92, pages 427-451.
    2. Belzil, Christian, 2007. "The return to schooling in structural dynamic models: a survey," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 1059-1105, July.
    3. Belzil, Christian & Hansen, Jörgen, 2005. "A Structural Analysis of the Correlated Random Coefficient Wage Regression Model with an Application to the OLS-IV Puzzle," IZA Discussion Papers 1585, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Heckman, James J. & Urzúa, Sergio, 2010. "Comparing IV with structural models: What simple IV can and cannot identify," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 156(1), pages 27-37, May.
    5. Sebastian Galiani & Juan Pantano, 2021. "Structural Models: Inception and Frontier," NBER Working Papers 28698, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Zamarro, Gema, 2010. "Accounting for heterogeneous returns in sequential schooling decisions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 156(2), pages 260-276, June.
    7. Heckman, James J. & Humphries, John Eric & Veramendi, Gregory, 2016. "Dynamic treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 191(2), pages 276-292.
    8. Heckman, James J. & Navarro, Salvador, 2007. "Dynamic discrete choice and dynamic treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(2), pages 341-396, February.
    9. Belzil, Christian & Hansen, Jörgen, 2001. "Heterogeneous Returns to Human Capital and Dynamic Self-Selection," IZA Discussion Papers 272, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. John K. Dagsvik & TorbjØrn HÆgeland & Arvid Raknerud, 2011. "Estimating the returns to schooling: a likelihood approach based on normal mixtures," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 613-640, June.
    11. Ge, Suqin, 2013. "Estimating the returns to schooling: Implications from a dynamic discrete choice model," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 92-105.
    12. Jaap Abbring & James Heckman, 2008. "Dynamic policy analysis," CeMMAP working papers CWP05/08, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    13. Christian Belzil & Jörgen Hansen, 2004. "Earnings Dispersion, Risk Aversion And Education," Research in Labor Economics, in: Accounting for Worker Well-Being, pages 335-358, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    14. Pedro Carneiro & James J. Heckman & Edward J. Vytlacil, 2011. "Estimating Marginal Returns to Education," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2754-2781, October.
    15. Keane, Michael P. & Todd, Petra E. & Wolpin, Kenneth I., 2011. "The Structural Estimation of Behavioral Models: Discrete Choice Dynamic Programming Methods and Applications," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 4, pages 331-461, Elsevier.
    16. Salvador Navarro, 2011. "Using Observed Choices to Infer Agent's Information: Reconsidering the Importance of Borrowing Constraints, Uncertainty and Preferences in College Attendance," University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP) Working Papers 20118, University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP).
    17. Pedro Carneiro & Sokbae (Simon) Lee, 2005. "Ability, sorting and wage inequality," CeMMAP working papers CWP16/05, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    18. James J. Heckman, 2005. "Micro Data, Heterogeneity and the Evaluation of Public Policy Part 2," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 49(1), pages 16-44, March.
    19. Aakvik, Arild & Salvanes, Kjell G. & Vaage, Kjell, 2003. "Measuring Heterogeneity in the Returns to Education in Norway Using Educational Reforms," IZA Discussion Papers 815, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Tobias Klein, 2013. "College education and wages in the U.K.: estimating conditional average structural functions in nonadditive models with binary endogenous variables," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 135-161, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Random Coefficient; Returns to Schooling; Comparative Advantages; Dynamic Programming; Dynamic Self-Selection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gat:wpaper:0405. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Nelly Wirth (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/gateefr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.