【Empirical/Macro Seminar】Is Earnings Inequality Driven by Talent or Tastes?
2023/06/29
研討會日期 : 2023-06-29
時間 : 10:30
主講人 : Professor Ian Fillmore
地點 : Conference Room B110
演講者簡介 : Professor Ian Fillmore received his PhD from the University of Chicago. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. His research interests are Labor Economics, Industrial Organization, and Economics of Education.
演講摘要 : Do tastes for leisure play an important role in determining earnings inequality? Using NLSY79 data, we fit a simple lifecycle model in which workers differ in (i) their human capital at age 30, (ii) their talent for accumulating human capital, and (iii) their tastes for leisure. We find that tastes play an important role in earnings inequality and a model without taste differences cannot match the data. Eliminating talent differences would cut the variance of pre-tax earnings in half, while eliminating taste differences would cut the variance by three-fourths. We conclude by exploring implications of our findings for optimal taxation.
