There is a negative mean-dispersion relationship between the log of mean annual hours in an occupation and the standard deviation of log annual hours in that occupation. We document this pattern using data from the 1976-2011 Current Population Survey (CPS) and various Survey of Income and...

This paper studies the role of social security and tax and transfer programs for understanding cross-country differences in labor supply late in the life cycle. First, we use the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) as well as the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to...

This paper studies the quantitative implications of wealth taxation (as opposed to capital income taxation) in an incomplete markets model with return rate heterogeneity across individuals. The key source of heterogeneity comes from the fact that some individuals have better entrepreneurial...

There is a negative mean-dispersion relationship between the log of mean annual hours in an occupation and the standard deviation of log annual hours in that occupation. We document this pattern using data from the 1976-2011 Current Population Survey (CPS) and various Survey of Income and...

This paper examines the role of relationship skills in determining life cycle outcomes in education, labor and marriage markets. We posit a two-factor model with human capital and "relationship" or "partnering" skill. Relationship skill is understood in our framework as the ability to maintain...

We argue that standard models with one-dimensional skills and human capital cannot explain these distinct patterns. Instead we develop a model in which human capital is occupation-specific, but in which non-routine occupations require upfront occupation-specific human capital built-up....

Then, we build a theory of labor supply with heterogeneous agents consistent with these empirical facts.  The key features of the model are life-cycle, incomplete markets, nonlinear wage schedules, an intensive and extensive margin in labor supply, and a social security system.  We calibrate...

This paper examines the role of social skills, as distinct from standard wage-determining human capital, in determining economic outcomes in labor and marriage markets. Social skill, or social capacity, is understood in our framework as the ability to maintain long-term relationships, whether...

In this paper we document substantial returns to occupational tenure. Everything else being constant, ten years of occupational tenure are likely to increase wages by at least $19\%$. Moreover, we show that when occupational experience is taken into account, tenure with an industry or an...