Predicting Earnings Distributions across Cities: The Human Capital Model vs the National Distribution Hypothesis

Barry Hirsch ()

Journal of Human Resources, 1978, vol. 13, issue 3, 366-384

Abstract: Microdata are used to examine the relative ability of the human capital model and of an alternative national distribution hypothesis to generate predicted distributions of earnings that are close to actual distributions within 48 SMSAs. Surprisingly, the national distribution hypothesis is found to be relatively more robust in predicting earnings distributions than the fixed-parameter human capital model. Earnings functions are then estimated separately within each SMSA, and it is found that the parameters of the human capital model vary significantly across labor markets. Further analysis examines the relationship between earnings distributions, the estimated parameters of the model, city size, and region.

Date: 1978
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/145550
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

Related works:
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:13:y:1978:i:3:p:366-384

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Human Resources from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().