We develop a model of retirement and human capital investment to study the effects of tax and retirement policies. Workers choose the supply of raw labor (career length) and also the human capital embodied in their labor. Our model explains a significant fraction of the US-Europe difference in...

We develop a model that accounts for several stylized facts about immigrant earnings. First, it implies that new immigrants learn less than natives with the same level of schooling. Second, depending on the age of immigration, it implies that initially, immigrant earnings need not grow faster...

We study human capital investment decisions in the face of risk. Human capital is an important source of uninsurable idiosyncratic risk. However, the few studies that focus on the effect of risk on human capital investment typically treat human capital like any other risky asset, without taking...

What are the micro and macro implications of a credit crunch? We study this question in a model where heterogeneous entrepreneurs can finance their investment by borrowing subject to collateral constraints and/or by using internal funds. We discipline our theory by requiring that the size...

relative scales across sectors.

This paper provides a quantitative evaluation of the aggregate and distributional impacts of economy-wide microfinance or other credit programs targeted toward small-scale entrepreneurs. In our analysis, we find that the redistributive impacts of microfinance are stronger in general-equilibrium,...

What are the micro and macro implications of a credit crunch? We study this question in a model where heterogeneous entrepreneurs can finance their investment by borrowing subject to collateral constraints and/or by using internal funds. We discipline our theory by requiring that the size...

Individuals are born into families that differ in size and managerial skill endowment. Each member of a family has the option to (i) work as a manager in the family firm; (ii) work as a manger in a non-family firm; or (iii) supply non-managerial labor for a wage. We consider two alternative...

We study college enrollment and completion decisions in the presence of risk in individuals' returns to college. Although the human capital acquired through education is irreversible (i.e., it cannot be decumulated or sold off), college education comes with two inherent options: (i) college...

The gender differentials in schooling and labor market outcomes have narrowed significantly in the last few decades. At the same time, it is well documented that idiosyncratic income risk has risen over the same period. We define idiosyncratic risk as the variance of the unobserved wage...