Numerous public policies are aimed at improving the earnings opportunities for children of the poor and at reducing lifetime earnings inequality. This paper investigates to what extent such policies accomplish their objectives. A quantitative theory of intergenerational mobility and lifetime...

Following Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992) a growing number of studies find that neoclassical growth models, augmented by human capital, successfully account for the large cross-country income differences found in the data. This paper argues that such models are inconsistent with observations on...

A number of recent papers have investigated the growth effects of tax reforms in the context of neoclassical growth models where growth is due to human capital accumulation. Stokey and Rebelo (1995) show that the predicted growth effects disagree to a striking extent and are highly sensitive to...

How do taxes affect human capital accumulation? This question has been studied extensively in the context of two model classes: overlapping generations (OLG) and infinite horizon (IH) models. These embody very different assumptions about the intergenerational transmission of physical and human...

A large empirical literature investigates the link between "openness" and growth. Cross-country observations suggest that (i) "openness" enhances growth by increasing a country's rate of investment, and (ii) variables related to equipment investment are robustly and strongly correlated with...

Immigration in the United States is characterized by a number of empirical regularities. Immigrants cluster geographically and are often employed together. Immigrant earnings differ by origin, even after controlling for education and experience. A large fraction of immigrants eventually returns...

A number of recent studies suggest that flat rate taxes may have important effects on long-run growth in the neoclassical growth model with human capital. In contrast to the traditional human capital literature, these studies assume that agents are infinitely lived and face constant returns in...

A number of recent studies suggest that flat rate taxes may have important effects on long-run growth in the neoclassical growth model with human capital. In contrast to the traditional human capital literature, these studies assume that agents are infinitely lived and face constant returns in...