Using Labor Supply Elasticities to Learn about Income Inequality: The Role of Productivities versus Preferences
通过一般劳动供给模型，将收入和工作时间与生产率和偏好联系起来，并利用文献中的劳动供给弹性估计，发现生产率是美国收入不平等的主要驱动因素，而偏好的重要性随收入效应或弹性差异增大而上升。
Using a general labor supply model in which individuals choose how much to work conditional on productivities and preferences for consumption relative to leisure, we show that the mapping from earnings and hours worked to productivities and preferences can be expressed entirely in terms of reduced-form labor supply elasticities. We investigate the roles that productivities and preferences play in driving income inequality in the United States. Benchmark labor supply elasticity estimates from the literature imply that productivities drive most income inequality. Preferences become increasingly important relative to benchmark, with larger income effects or larger differences between earnings and hours-worked elasticities.