Sorting and Long-Run Inequality

Raquel Fernández and Richard Rogerson ()

No 2352, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Many social commentators have raised concerns over the possibility that increased sorting in a society can lead to greater inequality. To investigate this we construct a dynamic model of intergenerational education acquisition, fertility, and marital sorting and parameterize the steady state to match several basic empirical findings. Contrary to Kremer's (1997) finding of a basically insignificant effect of marital sorting on inequality, we find that increased marital sorting will significantly increase income inequality. Three factors are central to our findings: a negative correlation between fertility and education, a decreasing marginal effect of parental education on children's years of education, and wages that are sensitive to the relative supply of skilled workers.

Keywords: Fertility; Inequality; Marriage; Sorting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D30 I20 J11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000-01
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP2352.asp (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Sorting and Long-Run Inequality (1999)
Working Paper: Sorting and Long-Run Inequality (2000)
Journal Article: Sorting And Long-Run Inequality (2001)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:2352

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP2352.asp

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers
Address: Centre for Economic Policy Research, 53--56 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DG
Series data maintained by ().