Sources of Lifetime Inequality

Mark Huggett, Gustavo Ventura and Amir Yaron

Working Papers from Georgetown University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Is lifetime inequality mainly due to differences across people established early in life or to differences in luck experienced over the working lifetime? We answer this question within a model that features idiosyncratic shocks to human capital, estimated directly from data, as well as heterogeneity in ability to learn, initial human capital, and initial wealth. We find that as of age 20, differences in initial conditions account for more of the variation in lifetime utility, lifetime earnings and lifetime wealth than do differences in shocks received over the lifetime. Among initial conditions, variation in initial human capital is substantially more important than variation in learning ability or initial wealth for determining how an agent fares in life. An increase in an agent's human capital affects expected lifetime utility by raising an agent's expected earnings profile, whereas an increase in learning ability affects expected utility by producing a steeper expected earnings profile.

Keywords: Lifetime Inequality; Human Capital; Idiosyncratic Risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D3 D91 E21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-07-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-hrm and nep-upt
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Sources of Lifetime Inequality (2011)
Working Paper: Sources of Lifetime Inequality (2010)
Working Paper: Sources of Lifetime Inequality (2007)
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