This paper investigates, theoretically and empirically, differences between blacks and whites in the U.S. concerning the intergenerational transmission of occupational skills and the effects on sons' earnings. The father-son skill correlation is measured by the correlation coefficient (or cosine...

This paper is part of the Global Repository of Income Dynamics (GRID) project cross‐country comparison of earnings inequality, volatility, and mobility. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer‐Household Dynamics (LEHD) infrastructure files, we produce a uniform set of...

This paper explores disparities between White, Black, and Hispanic families using a measure of lifetime earnings developed by Jacobs et al. (2022) for the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Lifetime earnings are a particularly important measure of well-being, with relevance for wealth...

Income inequality between different races in the U.S. is especially large. This difference is even larger when gender is involved. In a complementary study, we have developed a dynamic micro-economic model accurately describing the evolution of male and female incomes since 1930. Here, we extend...

Using rich administrative and household survey data, we document a series of new facts on earnings inequality and dynamics in a developing country with a large informal sector: Brazil. Since the mid-1990s, both inequality and volatility of earnings have declined significantly in Brazil's formal...

This paper studies the evolution of individual earnings inequality and dynamics in Canada from 1983 to 2016 using tax files and administrative records. Linking individual tax filers to their employers (and rich administrative records on firms) beginning in 2001, it also documents the...

This paper incorporates assignment frictions and sector-specific training into the Roy model of occupational choice. Assignment frictions represent the extent of the market whereas differences in sector-specific training reflect worker specialization. This framework thus captures Adam Smith's...

Occupational choice models predict that, ceteris paribus, countries with higher dispersion of skill will have higher market labour income inequality. However, an extended conclusion from empirical research is that cross-country variations in dispersion of skill explain little of the variation in...

This paper investigates, theoretically and empirically, differences between blacks and whites in the U.S. concerning the intergenerational transmission of occupational skills and the effects on sons' earnings. The father-son skill correlation is measured by the correlation coefficient (or cosine...

This paper investigates differences between blacks and whites in the intergenerational transmission of occupational skills and the effect of father-son skill correlations on sons’ earnings. We present a model of intergenerational skill transfer and measure the skill correlation between father...