We apply a recently proposed method to disentangle unobserved heterogeneity from risk in returns to education to data for the USA, the UK and Germany. We find that in residual wage variation, uncertainty by far dominates unobserved heterogeneity. The relation between uncertainty and level of...

The authors estimate a model inspired by J. Tinbergen's 1956 article, with utility maximizing job choice, where utility depends on job complexity and the wage rate, and where the equilibrium wage structure provides for compensation for more complex jobs. It involves maximum likelihood estimation...

The risk of investment in schooling has largely been ignored. We mimic the investment decision facing a student and simulate risky earnings profiles in alternative options, with parameters taken from the very limited evidence. The distribution of rates of return appears positively skewed. Our...

In this paper two wage observations which relate to the same point in time will be compared and the differences analyzed. The OSA-labor market survey contains information about wages received in April 1985 as reported in April 1985 and as reported in October 1986 by the same respondents. Large...

In the Netherlands auditors can be trained in a part-time educational track in which students combine working and studying or in a full-time educational track. The former training is relatively firm-specific whereas the latter training is relatively general. Applying human capital theory, we...