We develop a simple human capital model for optimum schooling length when earnings are stochastic, and highlight the pivotal role of risk attitudes and the schooling gradient of earnings risk. We use Spanish data to document the gradient and to estimate individual response to earnings risk in...

Inequality in education accounts for a large share of the inequality in earnings in Mexico. But the increase in earnings inequality does not appear to reflect a worsening in the distribution of education. The cause instead appears to be skill-biased technological change facilitated by increased...

Considering immigrant earnings in the context of post-arrival human capital investment implies: cohort quality should be defined in terms of the present value of the whole earnings profile; and, an appropriate definition of macro effects is obtained using the earnings profile of the native born...