Growth-Rate Heterogeneity and the Covariance Structure of Life-Cycle Earnings
利用美国男性面板数据，比较了两种收入动态模型：个人收入-经验曲线异质模型与单位根模型。分析表明异质模型更符合数据，并提供了收入增长率变异的新估计。
Using U.S. panel data on adult males, the author compares the 'profile heterogeneity model' of earnings dynamics, in which the earnings-experience profile varies across individuals, to a competing model in which earnings 'has a unit root.' The latter specification enjoys increasing popularity among researchers. The author's analysis questions this favor, suggesting the profile heterogeneity model provides a more consistent representation of the data. He also provides new estimates of the variation in earnings growth rates. Previous evidence is from relatively unrepresentative samples. Individuals one standard deviation above the mean enjoy a 20-30 percent earnings advantage in just ten years. Copyright 1997 by University of Chicago Press.