This article argues in favour of a dynamic specification of the Mincer equation, where the past observed earnings play the role of additional explanatory variable for current observed earnings. A dynamic approach offers an explanation why the return to schooling in terms of observed earnings is...

The standard human-capital model is based on the assumption that the observed wage of an individual is equal to the monetary value of the individual net human-capital productivity, the so-called net potential wage. We argue that this assumption is rejected by the ECHP data for Belgium, Denmark...

The Council of Economic Advisers (1997) started a large research effort about the relationship between the US unemployment rate and the welfare participation rate, with special regard to the 1990s. In this paper, this relationship is examined in a structural VAR over the period of 1960-2000. It...

This paper provides an empirical evaluation of the three main arguments proposed by Blanchard (2007) in a recent article on the evolution of the Portuguese economy during the last decade, with special regard to the dynamics of international trade and unemployment. Our time-series evidence...

A report by the Council of Economic Advisers (1997) is the first of a group of studies, known as caseload studies, analysing the relationship between the US unemployment rate and the welfare participation rate, with special regard to the 1990s. We examine this relationship in a structural VAR...

A 1997 report by the Council of Economic Advisers started a large research effort about the effects of the unemployment rate on the welfare participation rate and vice-versa, with special regard to the 1990s in the United States. In this paper the relationship between the US unemployment rate...

This article argues that a dynamic Mincer equation can be seen as the solution of a simple wage-bargaining model between a worker and an employer where the unemployment-benefit level, affecting the outside option of the worker, depends on past wages. Further, it shows that this model provides a...

The standard approach to the estimation of schooling returns disregards earnings persistence. Using longitudinal data for Belgian male workers (ECHP, 1994–2001), we show that earnings persistence matters.