College-educated workers entering the labor market in 1940 experienced a 4-fold increase in their labor earnings between the ages of 25 and 55; in contrast, the increase was 2.6-fold for those entering the market in 1980. For workers without a college education these figures are 3.6-fold and 1.5-fold, respectively. Why are earnings profiles flatter for recent cohorts? We build a parsimonious mo...

We estimate the impacts of the Earned Income Tax Credit on labor supply using local variation in knowledge about the EITC schedule. We proxy for EITC knowledge in a ZIP code with the fraction of individuals who manipulate reported self-employment income to maximize their EITC refund. This measure varies significantly across areas. We exploit changes in EITC eligibility at the birth of a child t...

We use the occasion of a change in tax policy that raised the tax rate for many of the listed companies in China to examine tax-induced earnings management (TEM) from the perspective of political connections. We find that when the tax rate increased, only those affected firms with politically connected management engaged in TEM. This suggests that, in addition to motivation for managing earning...

This study is motivated by the idea that the racial gap in earnings is generated not only by individual differences but also by systematic variation in the occupational structure that attenuates or exacerbates the effects of race. Using data from the 1990 census and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, a hierarchical linear modeling approach is employed that allows the simultaneous exploratio...

The increase in earnings inequality among men in particular in Canada has been well documented. This paper adds to our knowledge of inequality trends by addressing three issues. First, what has happened to earnings inequality among the employed population in the 1990s? We find that earnings inequality and polarization increased little in the population of all workers (men and women combined) be...

This study is motivated by the idea that the racial gap in earnings is generated not only by individual differences but also by systematic variation in the occupational structure that attenuates or exacerbates the effects of race. Using data from the 1990 census and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, a hierarchical linear modeling approach is employed that allows the simultaneous exploratio...

Dr. Nowak is the director of the Institute and Outpatient Clinic for Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Ludwig Maximilians University and a deputy for Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Technical University — both in Munich, Germany. Kassirer JP. Managed care and the morality of the marketplace. N Engl J Med 1995; 333:50-2. Bramley-Harker E, Barham L. Comparing physicians’ e...

Although trends in many physical characteristics and cognitive capabilities of modern humans are well-documented, less is known about how personality traits have evolved over time. We analyze data from a standardized personality test administered to 79% of Finnish men born between 1962 and 1976 (n = 419,523) and find steady increases in personality traits that predict higher income in later lif...

The realized size and value premia reflect earnings-induced price surprises that do not fit the rational pricing story. In addition, they seem to have little to do with systematic risks. This is because the majority of value or small firms with persistently high systematic risks are not rewarded with a premium. The premium happens, as a price adjustment, only to the subset of migrating firms wh...