Finis Welch
Biographic Data
| ID | 343473 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Finis Welch |
| GIVEN NAMES | Finis |
| FAMILY NAME | Welch |
| SIGNATURE | WELCH F |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024 and the Unicon Research Corporation, Los Angeles, California 90064. |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 265 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1966 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Handbook of the economics of education
Vol. 3: How does education affect economic and social outcomes, and how can it inform public policy? Volume 3 of the Handbooks in the Economics of Education uses newly available high quality data from around the world to address these and other core questions. With the help of new methodological approaches, contributors cover econometric methods and international test score data. They examine the determinants of educational outcomes and issues su…
In Honor of Kevin M. Murphy
f you do not know Kevin Murphy, I assure you that he is not impressed with himself. He, also, is not particularly impressed with anyone else, or more precisely, he is impressed with everyone else, in the sense that he treats everyone equally, with respect. I have testified in Congress in a panel with Kevin where he wore jeans and sneakers! He gave the University of Chicago's commencement address in the winter of 1998. The school's only proviso wa…
The Structure of Wages
Although surveys show that traditional orderings of average wage—i.e., higher earnings with higher schooling and concave age-wage profiles—have not changed during the past three decades, the actual size of the wage differentials measured by education or by work experience has varied from peak to trough by a factor of two-to-one. The patterns are not monotone, but there is a trend toward increased skill premiums. We first examine the structure of …
Empirical Age-Earnings Profiles
The "human capital earnings function," in which earnings are expressed as a quadratic in potential experience, is probably the most widely accepted empirical specification in economics. In spite of its widespread acceptance, the human capital earnings function provides a very poor approximation of the true empirical relationship between earnings and experience. The standard formulation understates early career earnings growth by about 30%-50% and…
Wage Premiums for College Graduates
Against a general trend over the last 25 years of increasing wage differentials between college and high school graduates, two departures are noteworthy. Between 1971 and 1979, the college wage premium fell by about a third for young graduates and somewhat less for older workers. To some, this narrowing wage differential marked the end of an era when investments in college yielded returns comparable to other investments. In retrospect, the declin…
The Panel Study of Income Dynamics after Fourteen Years
This article considers the representativeness of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) over its 14-year history from 1968 to 1981 given the dynamics of entry and exit from the panel. By 1981, 40% of the original members had left the sample and were replaced by new entrants who joined either existing households or new households being formed by members of the original sample. We consider the distribution of demographic characteristics and earn…
Closing the Gap
Forty years ago Gunnar Myrdal assessed the economic situation of blacks in America as pathological. The 40-year record clearly points to a significant and quantitatively large improvement in the relative economic status of black men. In 1940 the typical black male earned around $4500 (in 1984 dollars); a similarly employed black male earned almost $19000 by 1980. The typical black male worker in 1940 earned only 43% as much as his white counterpa…
A Reconsideration of the Impact of School Desegregation Programs on Public School Enrollment of White Students, 1968-76
What Do We Really Know about Wages? The Importance of Nonreporting and Census Imputation
In the most frequently used microdata sets, over a quarter of all respondents now refuse to answer some questions about their incomes. The Census Bureau has dealt with this problem, which has been increasing in severity over time, by imputing incomes of non-respondents. Their imputation procedure, called the "hot deck," essentially matches nonrespondents with demographically similar donors. In this paper we evaluate the census imputation methodol…
Earnings of Hispanic Men
The size and rapid growth of the Hispanic population in the United States raise many questions about the effects of language on the process of economic assimilation. This paper uses data on earnings for 1975 to explore the role of English language proficiency in the assimilation of Hispanic men into the U.S. labor market. The results are strong: differences associated with English language skills explain virtually all of the Hispanic wage differe…
No Time to Be Young
This paper concentrates on the economic experiences of the baby-boom cohorts. We first document their early career experience and demonstrate that indeed this was no time to be young. We then offer reasons why cohort size may be important and note which people, within a cohort, are most likely to be adversely affected. We estimate the magnitude of cohort size effects on earnings potential throughout the work career
Unemployment Insurance
employment, and they are generally viewed as programmes of social insurance wherein the costs of financing UI benefit payments are shared by all workers and firms in the covered (insured) sector. As is common in such situations, however, problems of moral hazard may arise: the frequency and severity of periods of unemployment are to an important degree products of the employment decisions of workers and firms, and these may be affected by the pro…
Effects of Cohort Size on Earnings
The arrival of the post--World War II baby boom cohorts in the job market raises many questions of effects associated with a rapidly declining average age of the labor force. This paper first summarizes 1967-75 wage behavior, showing that relative wages between schooling groups have not changed for prime-aged workers, but there is some evidence, for new job-market entrants, that wages of more educated workers have fallen relative to wages of less…
Effects of Minimum Wages on the Level and Age Composition of Youth Employment
This paper (1) presents estimates of minimum wage effects on employment of teenagers 14-15, 16-17 and 18-19 years, and (2) decomposes these estimates into scale and substitution components for calculating effects of differential minima. In 1972 the House of Representatives approved an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act calling for a youth differential, but one was not included in the Senate version. These bills died when the House refused …
What have We Learned from Empirical Studies of Unemployment Insurance
Focuses on lessons learned from studies of unemployment insurance (UI). Theoretical implications of UI; Information on experience-rated UI; Effect of UI on subsequent earnings; Examination of the duration of UI; Measurement of unemployment duration. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)
Do Sex Preferences Really Matter?
Some theoretical guidelines, 286. — Evidence: fertility and sex composition, 289. — Would family size change if sex of children were controlled? 297. — Variation in the probability for a boy and the aggregate sex ratio, 299. — Summary, 302. — Appendix, 302.
Employment Quotas for Minorities
The Labor Market Implications of an Economywide Affirmative Action Program
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential impact on the distribution of labor income of a policy that requires that, in each firm in the economy, minority workers (1) receive the same wage as majority workers given the same job classifications and (2) are employed in the same proportion as majority workers in all job classifications. This Affirmative Action Program (AAP) obviously exceeds the scope of current policies in this rega…
Benefits of Women's Education within Marriage
Equity and the Finance of Higher Education
Labor Supply and Income Redistribution
S ome recent papers have estimated labor supply functions for the working poor. 1 All have a single objective: To estimate the labor force effects of a negative income tax or related income program. The basic argument is simply that the increase in unearned income leads to an income reduction in the labor supply. This, because leisure is a superior good. Also, most negative income tax schemes entail an increased marginal tax rate, that is the sam…
Education in Production
Labor-Market Discrimination
Education and the Southern Economy . James W. McKie
Effects of Cohort Size on Earnings
The arrival of the post--World War II baby boom cohorts in the job market raises many questions of effects associated with a rapidly declining average age of the labor force. This paper first summarizes 1967-75 wage behavior, showing that relative wages between schooling groups have not changed for prime-aged workers, but there is some evidence, for new job-market entrants, that wages of more educated workers have fallen relative to wages of less…
Education in Production
Wage Premiums for College Graduates
Against a general trend over the last 25 years of increasing wage differentials between college and high school graduates, two departures are noteworthy. Between 1971 and 1979, the college wage premium fell by about a third for young graduates and somewhat less for older workers. To some, this narrowing wage differential marked the end of an era when investments in college yielded returns comparable to other investments. In retrospect, the declin…
What Do We Really Know about Wages? The Importance of Nonreporting and Census Imputation
In the most frequently used microdata sets, over a quarter of all respondents now refuse to answer some questions about their incomes. The Census Bureau has dealt with this problem, which has been increasing in severity over time, by imputing incomes of non-respondents. Their imputation procedure, called the "hot deck," essentially matches nonrespondents with demographically similar donors. In this paper we evaluate the census imputation methodol…
Labor-Market Discrimination
No Time to Be Young
This paper concentrates on the economic experiences of the baby-boom cohorts. We first document their early career experience and demonstrate that indeed this was no time to be young. We then offer reasons why cohort size may be important and note which people, within a cohort, are most likely to be adversely affected. We estimate the magnitude of cohort size effects on earnings potential throughout the work career
What have We Learned from Empirical Studies of Unemployment Insurance
Focuses on lessons learned from studies of unemployment insurance (UI). Theoretical implications of UI; Information on experience-rated UI; Effect of UI on subsequent earnings; Examination of the duration of UI; Measurement of unemployment duration. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)
Benefits of Women's Education within Marriage
Employment Quotas for Minorities
A Reconsideration of the Impact of School Desegregation Programs on Public School Enrollment of White Students, 1968-76
Unemployment Insurance
employment, and they are generally viewed as programmes of social insurance wherein the costs of financing UI benefit payments are shared by all workers and firms in the covered (insured) sector. As is common in such situations, however, problems of moral hazard may arise: the frequency and severity of periods of unemployment are to an important degree products of the employment decisions of workers and firms, and these may be affected by the pro…
The Labor Market Implications of an Economywide Affirmative Action Program
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential impact on the distribution of labor income of a policy that requires that, in each firm in the economy, minority workers (1) receive the same wage as majority workers given the same job classifications and (2) are employed in the same proportion as majority workers in all job classifications. This Affirmative Action Program (AAP) obviously exceeds the scope of current policies in this rega…
Education and the Southern Economy . James W. McKie
Labor-Market Discrimination
Education in Production
Labor Supply and Income Redistribution
S ome recent papers have estimated labor supply functions for the working poor. 1 All have a single objective: To estimate the labor force effects of a negative income tax or related income program. The basic argument is simply that the increase in unearned income leads to an income reduction in the labor supply. This, because leisure is a superior good. Also, most negative income tax schemes entail an increased marginal tax rate, that is the sam…
Equity and the Finance of Higher Education
Benefits of Women's Education within Marriage
Do Sex Preferences Really Matter?
Some theoretical guidelines, 286. — Evidence: fertility and sex composition, 289. — Would family size change if sex of children were controlled? 297. — Variation in the probability for a boy and the aggregate sex ratio, 299. — Summary, 302. — Appendix, 302.
Employment Quotas for Minorities
The Labor Market Implications of an Economywide Affirmative Action Program
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential impact on the distribution of labor income of a policy that requires that, in each firm in the economy, minority workers (1) receive the same wage as majority workers given the same job classifications and (2) are employed in the same proportion as majority workers in all job classifications. This Affirmative Action Program (AAP) obviously exceeds the scope of current policies in this rega…
What have We Learned from Empirical Studies of Unemployment Insurance
Focuses on lessons learned from studies of unemployment insurance (UI). Theoretical implications of UI; Information on experience-rated UI; Effect of UI on subsequent earnings; Examination of the duration of UI; Measurement of unemployment duration. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)
Effects of Minimum Wages on the Level and Age Composition of Youth Employment
This paper (1) presents estimates of minimum wage effects on employment of teenagers 14-15, 16-17 and 18-19 years, and (2) decomposes these estimates into scale and substitution components for calculating effects of differential minima. In 1972 the House of Representatives approved an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act calling for a youth differential, but one was not included in the Senate version. These bills died when the House refused …
Effects of Cohort Size on Earnings
The arrival of the post--World War II baby boom cohorts in the job market raises many questions of effects associated with a rapidly declining average age of the labor force. This paper first summarizes 1967-75 wage behavior, showing that relative wages between schooling groups have not changed for prime-aged workers, but there is some evidence, for new job-market entrants, that wages of more educated workers have fallen relative to wages of less…
Unemployment Insurance
employment, and they are generally viewed as programmes of social insurance wherein the costs of financing UI benefit payments are shared by all workers and firms in the covered (insured) sector. As is common in such situations, however, problems of moral hazard may arise: the frequency and severity of periods of unemployment are to an important degree products of the employment decisions of workers and firms, and these may be affected by the pro…
No Time to Be Young
This paper concentrates on the economic experiences of the baby-boom cohorts. We first document their early career experience and demonstrate that indeed this was no time to be young. We then offer reasons why cohort size may be important and note which people, within a cohort, are most likely to be adversely affected. We estimate the magnitude of cohort size effects on earnings potential throughout the work career
Earnings of Hispanic Men
The size and rapid growth of the Hispanic population in the United States raise many questions about the effects of language on the process of economic assimilation. This paper uses data on earnings for 1975 to explore the role of English language proficiency in the assimilation of Hispanic men into the U.S. labor market. The results are strong: differences associated with English language skills explain virtually all of the Hispanic wage differe…
What Do We Really Know about Wages? The Importance of Nonreporting and Census Imputation
In the most frequently used microdata sets, over a quarter of all respondents now refuse to answer some questions about their incomes. The Census Bureau has dealt with this problem, which has been increasing in severity over time, by imputing incomes of non-respondents. Their imputation procedure, called the "hot deck," essentially matches nonrespondents with demographically similar donors. In this paper we evaluate the census imputation methodol…
A Reconsideration of the Impact of School Desegregation Programs on Public School Enrollment of White Students, 1968-76
The Panel Study of Income Dynamics after Fourteen Years
This article considers the representativeness of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) over its 14-year history from 1968 to 1981 given the dynamics of entry and exit from the panel. By 1981, 40% of the original members had left the sample and were replaced by new entrants who joined either existing households or new households being formed by members of the original sample. We consider the distribution of demographic characteristics and earn…
Closing the Gap
Forty years ago Gunnar Myrdal assessed the economic situation of blacks in America as pathological. The 40-year record clearly points to a significant and quantitatively large improvement in the relative economic status of black men. In 1940 the typical black male earned around $4500 (in 1984 dollars); a similarly employed black male earned almost $19000 by 1980. The typical black male worker in 1940 earned only 43% as much as his white counterpa…
Wage Premiums for College Graduates
Against a general trend over the last 25 years of increasing wage differentials between college and high school graduates, two departures are noteworthy. Between 1971 and 1979, the college wage premium fell by about a third for young graduates and somewhat less for older workers. To some, this narrowing wage differential marked the end of an era when investments in college yielded returns comparable to other investments. In retrospect, the declin…
Empirical Age-Earnings Profiles
The "human capital earnings function," in which earnings are expressed as a quadratic in potential experience, is probably the most widely accepted empirical specification in economics. In spite of its widespread acceptance, the human capital earnings function provides a very poor approximation of the true empirical relationship between earnings and experience. The standard formulation understates early career earnings growth by about 30%-50% and…
The Structure of Wages
Although surveys show that traditional orderings of average wage—i.e., higher earnings with higher schooling and concave age-wage profiles—have not changed during the past three decades, the actual size of the wage differentials measured by education or by work experience has varied from peak to trough by a factor of two-to-one. The patterns are not monotone, but there is a trend toward increased skill premiums. We first examine the structure of …
In Honor of Kevin M. Murphy
f you do not know Kevin Murphy, I assure you that he is not impressed with himself. He, also, is not particularly impressed with anyone else, or more precisely, he is impressed with everyone else, in the sense that he treats everyone equally, with respect. I have testified in Congress in a panel with Kevin where he wore jeans and sneakers! He gave the University of Chicago's commencement address in the winter of 1998. The school's only proviso wa…
Handbook of the economics of education
Vol. 3: How does education affect economic and social outcomes, and how can it inform public policy? Volume 3 of the Handbooks in the Economics of Education uses newly available high quality data from around the world to address these and other core questions. With the help of new methodological approaches, contributors cover econometric methods and international test score data. They examine the determinants of educational outcomes and issues su…
Economics (20 works) · Labour economics (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Demographic economics (11 works) · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality (11 works) · Earnings (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Demography (7 works) · Wage (6 works) · Download (5 works)