Schooling, Work Experience, and Wage Trends
分析1970-1980年代美国劳动力教育和工作经验构成变化如何影响相对工资，发现教育对终生收入的影响大于出生队列规模，教育工资溢价在1980年代大幅上升。
When members of the baby-boom generation began entering the work force in substantial numbers during the 1970s, the resulting crowding reduced their earnings in comparison with earlier cohorts of the same age, and wage premiums for schooling also declined. These developments raised questions about how well members of the babyboom generation might fare during their working lives compared with smaller neighboring cohorts (Finis Welch, 1979; Mark Berger, 1985). When wage premiums for schooling increased sharply during the 1980s, however, it became apparent that workers' levels of schooling were more important determinants of their lifetime earnings than the size of their birth cohort. The small decline in schooling wage premiums during the 1970s now appears to have been only a temporary interruption of a trend toward higher economic rewards for schooling. Since schooling and work experience account for about half of the variation in earnings, wage trends of the work force as a whole have been influenced by changes in its composition since the late 1960s. In addition to these compositional changes, relative wages have also changed dramatically as the number of entrants into the labor force with high schooling levels surged during the 1970s and receded during the 1980s. The purpose of this paper is to describe the relationship between changes in the schooling and work experience composition of the labor force and changes in relative wages during the past fifteen years.