We provide theory for calculating bounds on both the value of an individual[modifier letter apostrophe]s human capital and the return on an individual[modifier letter apostrophe]s human capital, given knowledge of the process governing earnings and financial asset returns. We calculate bounds...

Data on consumption, earnings, wages and hours dispersion over the life cycle is commonly viewed as incompatible with a Pareto efficient allocation. We show that a model with preference and wage shocks and full insurance produces the rise in consumption, wages and hours dispersion over the life...

This paper posits a notion of the value of an individual's human capital and the associated return on human capital. These concepts are examined using U.S. data on male earnings and financial asset returns. We find that (1) the value of human capital is far below the value implied by discounting...

We assess the consequences of substantially increasing the marginal tax rate on U.S. top earners using a human capital model. We nd that (1) the peak of the model Laer curve occurs at a 52 percent top tax rate, (2) if human capital were exogenous, then the top of the Laer curve would occur at a...

It is commonly conjectured that expected wealth accumulation increases when earnings risk increases as long as the utility function in each period is increasing, concave and has a positive third derivative. We present a counter example which highlights the importance of the convexity of the...

When does an individual's expected wealth accumulation profile increase as earnings risk increases? This paper answers this question for multi-period models where earnings shocks are independent over time. Sufficient conditions are stated in terms of properties of a decision rule for savings...

Is lifetime inequality mainly due to differences across people established early in life or to differences in luck experienced over the working lifetime? We answer this question within a model that features idiosyncratic shocks to human capital, estimated directly from data, as well as...

A common problem in dynamic economic theory is to determine when an increase in a parameter and/or an initial condition increases the future dynamics of a theoretical economy. This paper provides conditions that are necessary and sufficient for making statements of this type. The result is...