Wage Mobility within and between Jobs

This paper presents evidence on the extent of wage mobility both while working for the same firm and when moving to a new firm. We find that mean wage growth between jobs is large in comparison to wage growth while working for the same employer, especially for less educated workers who experience low mean wage growth between jobs but even lower wage growth while working for the same employer. There is, however, substantial heterogeneity in wage growth both within and between firms. We, therefore, focus on both the means of the wage change distributions and on the probability that a worker does not experience real wage growth either while working for the same employer or moving to a new employer. We find that while real wages do grow with experience on the average job, a substantial proportion of workers experience real declines in wages while working for the same employer or moving to a new

On the Evaluation of Economic Mobility

This paper provides an explicit welfare basis for evaluating economic mobility. Our social welfare function can be seen as a natural dynamic extension of the static social welfare function presented in Atkinson and Bourguignon (1982). Unlike Atkinson and Bourguignon, we use social preferences a la Kreps-Porteus, for which the timing of resolution of uncertainty may matter. Within this generalized framework, we show that welfare evaluation of mobility depends on the interplay between aversion to inequality, risk aversion, and aversion to intertemporal fluctuations. This framework allows us to provide a welfare analysis not only of "reversal" (which has been the focus of much of the literature) but also of "origin independence" (which has not received an explicit welfare foundation in the literature). We use our framework to develop welfare measures of mobility, and apply these measures to intergenerational mobility in the United States using PSID data. We show that the value of origin independence is quantitatively important. We also show that different subpopulations experience different mobility patterns: reversal is more important than origin independence for blacks but the opposite is true for non-blacks.mobility

Trends in the Transitory Variance of Male Earnings in the U.S., 1970-2004

We estimate the trend in the transitory variance of male earnings in the U.S. using the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1970 to 2004. Using both an error components model as well as simpler but only approximate methods, we find that the transitory variance started to increase in the early 1970s, continued to increase through the mid-1980s, and then remained at this new higher level through the 1990s and beyond. Thus the increase mostly occurred about thirty years ago. Its increase accounts for between 31 and 49 percent of the total rise in cross-sectional variance, depending on the time period.

Is Earnings Inequality Also Rising in Other Industrialized Countries? -- the Role of Institutional Constraints

Earnings Distribution, Cross-national Comparisons

The Loss in Efficiency from Using Grouped Data

We derive the efficiency loss from using grouped data to estimate coefficients of variables that vary across groups but not individuals within a group (e.g., state unemployment rates) when micro data are unavailable on the dependent variable. We present an empirical example of our theoretical results, and show that the efficiency loss in this application is small.grouped data, relative efficiency

An Analysis of Sample Attrition in Panel Data: The Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics

By 1989 the Michigan Panel Study on Income Dynamics (PSID) had experienced approximately 50 percent sample loss from cumulative attrition from its initial 1968 membership. We study the effect of this attrition on the unconditional distributions of several socioeconomic variables and on the estimates of several sets of regression coefficients. We provide a statistical framework for conducting tests for attrition bias that draws a sharp distinction between selection on unobservables and on observables and that shows that weighted least squares can generate consistent parameter estimates when selection is based on observables, even when they are endogenous. Our empirical analysis shows that attrition is highly selective and is concentrated among lower socioeconomic status individuals. We also show that attrition is concentrated among those with more unstable earnings, marriage, and migration histories. Nevertheless, we find that these variables explain very little of the attrition in the sample, and that the selection that occurs is moderated by regression-to-the-mean effects from selection on transitory components that fade over time. Consequently, despite the large amount of attrition, we find no strong evidence that attrition has seriously distorted the representativeness of the PSID through 1989, and considerable evidence that its cross-sectional representativeness has remained roughly intact.

New strategies in the synthesis of carbocyclic natural products

It was the purpose of this thesis work to develop new cyclization sequences to be used toward the synthesis of various carbocyclic terpenes. Three such sequences were discovered;One sequence dealt with the 1,4-conjugate addition of various furans to certain cyclic enones mediated by iodotrimethylsilane;Another sequence utilized the same general reaction except that dienol silyl ethers were employed instead of furans to yield bicyclic and tricyclic compounds. These compounds would be useful for the synthesis of several diterpene analogues such as the steroids or the quassinoids;The final sequence dealt with (beta)-hydroxy-(gamma)-lactone synthesis. This was done with the novel reagent bromo-acetaldehyde which we were able to produce in anhydrous form. We have ultimately improved the reaction sequence to entail a one-pot procedure resulting in good yields of the desired products. Such products could be used toward the synthesis of naturally occurring (beta)-hydroxy-(gamma)-lactones such as the litsolenolides

Some Evidence on the Importance of Sticky Wages

Nominal wage stickiness is an important component of recent medium-scale structural macroeconomic models, but to date there has been little microeconomic evidence supporting the assumption of sluggish nominal wage adjustment. We present evidence on the frequency of nominal wage adjustment using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) for the period 1996-1999. The SIPP provides high-frequency information on wages, employment and demographic characteristics for a large and representative sample of the US population. The main results of the analysis are as follows. 1) After correcting for measurement error, wages appear to be very sticky. In the average quarter, the probability that an individual will experience a nominal wage change is between 5 and 18 percent, depending on the samples and assumptions used. 2) The frequency of wage adjustment does not display significant seasonal patterns. 3) There is little heterogeneity in the frequency of wage adjustment across industries and occupations 4) The hazard of a nominal wage change first increases and then decreases, with a peak at 12 months. 5) The probability of a wage change is positively correlated with the unemployment rate and with the consumer price inflation rate.wage stickiness, micro-level evidence, measurement error

Bimodal activation of different neuron classes with the spectrally red-shifted channelrhodopsin chimera C1V1 in Caenorhabditis elegans

The C. elegans nervous system is particularly well suited for optogenetic analyses of circuit function: Essentially all connections have been mapped, and light can be directed at the neuron of interest in the freely moving, transparent animals, while behavior is observed. Thus, different nodes of a neuronal network can be probed for their role in controlling a particular behavior, using different optogenetic tools for photo-activation or –inhibition, which respond to different colors of light. As neurons may act in concert or in opposing ways to affect a behavior, one would further like to excite these neurons concomitantly, yet independent of each other. In addition to the blue-light activated Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2), spectrally red-shifted ChR variants have been explored recently. Here, we establish the green-light activated ChR chimera C1V1 (from Chlamydomonas and Volvox ChR1′s) for use in C. elegans. We surveyed a number of red-shifted ChRs, and found that C1V1-ET/ET (E122T; E162T) works most reliable in C. elegans, with 540–580 nm excitation, which leaves ChR2 silent. However, as C1V1-ET/ET is very light sensitive, it still becomes activated when ChR2 is stimulated, even at 400 nm. Thus, we generated a highly efficient blue ChR2, the H134R; T159C double mutant (ChR2-HR/TC). Both proteins can be used in the same animal, in different neurons, to independently control each cell type with light, enabling a further level of complexity in circuit analyses