Lifecycle Wages and Human Capital Investments: Selection and Missing Data

Pré-publication, Document de travail: We derive wage equations with individual specific coefficients from a structural model of human capital investment over the life cycle. This model allows for interruptions in labour market participation and deals with missing data and attrition problems. We propose a new framework that deals with missingness at random and is based on factor decompositions that allow for flexible control of selection. Our approach leads to an interactive effect wage specification, which we estimate using long administrative panel data on male wages in the private sector in France. A structural function approach shows that interruptions negatively affect average wages. Interestingly, they also negatively affect the inter-decile range of wages after twenty years. This is only partly due to the fact that interruptions are endogenous.

Auteur(s)

Laurent Gobillon, Thierry Magnac, Sébastien Roux

Date de publication
  • 2024
Mots-clés JEL
C38 D91 I24 J24 J31
Mots-clés
  • Human capital investment
  • Wage inequalities
  • Factor models
  • Missing data
Référence interne
  • PSE Working Papers n°2025-16
Pages
  • 55 p. + annexe
Version
  • 1