This paper empirically assesses the theory of interpersonal income comparison using individual level data on suicide deaths in the United States. We model suicide as a choice variable, conditional on exogenous risk factors, reflecting an individual's assessment of current and expected future...

We show that intergenerational mobility changed rapidly by race and class in recent decades and use these trends to study the causal mechanisms underlying changes in economic mobility. For white children in the U.S. born between 1978 and 1992, earnings increased for children from high-income...

This paper exploits longitudinal employer-employee matched data from the U.S. Census Bureau to investigate the contribution of worker and firm reallocation to changes in earnings inequality within and across industries between 1992 and 2003. We find that factors that cannot be measured using...

This paper exploits longitudinal employer-employee matched data from the U.S. Census Bureau to investigate the contribution of worker and firm reallocation to changes in earnings inequality within and across industries between 1992 and 2003. We find that factors that cannot be measured using...

In low- and middle-income countries such as West African countries, access to youth labour market is characterized by significant inequalities. But it is rare to find in the context of the West African countries, empirical studies which have focused on inequalities of opportunity on the issue of...

Income inequality and income intergenerational immobility are positively associated across countries. Here we provide an explanation for this association and show it is mechanically driven by the definition of the intergenerational earnings elasticity. This may hint that higher intergenerational...

In this paper/article, we review the performance of NREGA and other employment generation scheme in India, we observe that NREGA has been able to include women and other marginalized community under ‘right to work', it has also led to increase school participation for children, help smoothed...

Extant research has found that an individual's happiness is relative with respect to income, suggesting that it rises with own income and falls as the income of a reference group increases. Some recent studies emphasize that the effect of relative income is mediated by the extent to which people...

This chapter presents a framework for understanding changes in the wage structure and overall earnings inequality. The framework emphasizes the role of supply and demand factors and the interaction of market forces and labor market institutions. Recent changes in the US wage structure are...

I generalize the canonical model--in which relative supply and demand for worker skills shape the skill premium--incorporating monopsony power, minimum wages, and unemployment. I estimate the extended canonical model using national data and, separately, state-level data. I show that...