This is a theoretical study of human-capital accumulation, where parental, as well as public investments are essential. Policy influence rich and poor parents differently when they make educational decisions. Rich parents allocate resources efficiently between physical bequests and educational...

This is a theoretical study of human-capital accumulation, where parental, as well as public investments are essential. Policy influence rich and poor parents differently when they make educational decisions. Rich parents allocate resources efficiently between physical bequests and educational...

The issue of lowering or restructuring payroll taxes in order to relieve the situation for the unemployed, and in particular unskilled workers, is a topical question on the political agenda across the European countries. This paper examines the potential effects of altered payroll taxes on...

I study the size and sources of the monetary return to college achievement as measured by cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA). I first present evidence that the return to achievement is large and statistically significant. I find, however, that this masks variation in the return across...

Using life cycle publication data of 9,368 economics PhD graduates from 127 U.S. institutions, we investigate how unemployment in the U.S. economy prior to starting graduate studies and at the time of entry into the academic job market affect economics PhD graduates’ research productivity. We...

We examine how tax avoidance in the form of trade in well-functioning asset markets affects the empirical study of labor supply. We discuss the implications for tax policy analysis, and we show that a failure to account for avoidance responses may lead to huge errors when predicting how tax...

The objective of this paper is to describe two new administrative Swedish databases, referred to as the Belinda databases. Together, these databases contain the most detailed individual-level data on estates, bequests, and inheritances currently available. We present descriptive statistics for...

Given the key role of the taxable income elasticity in designing an optimal tax system there are many studies attempting to estimate this elasticity. A problem with most of these studies is that strong functional form assumptions are used and that heterogeneity in preferences is not allowed for....

Americans work more than Europeans. Using micro data from the U.S. and 17 European countries, we study the contributions from demographic subgroups to these aggregate level dierences. We document that women are typically the largest contributors to the discrepancy in work hours. We also document...

In this paper, we study the short-run effect of salary receipt on mortality among Swedish public sector employees. By using data on variation in pay-days across work-places, we completely control for mortality patterns related to, for example, public holidays and other special days or events...