Long-Run Substitutability Between More and Less Educated Workers: Evidence from U.S. States, 1950–1990
利用美国各州1950-1990年人口普查数据，以童工法和义务教育法为工具变量，估计出高学历与低学历工人之间的长期替代弹性约为1.5，对理解教育政策与工资不平等有参考价值。
We estimate the aggregate long-run elasticity of substitution between more educated workers and less educated workers (the slope of the inverse demand curve for more relative to less educated workers) at the U.S. state level. Our data come from the (five) 1950-1990 decennial censuses. Our empirical approach allows for state and time fixed effects and relies on time- and state-dependent child labor and compulsory school attendance laws as instruments for (endogenous) changes in the relative supply of more educated workers. We find the aggregate long-run elasticity of substitution between more and less educated workers to be around 1.5. © 2005 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.