Human capital, reservation wages and job competition: Heckman's lambda re-interpreted

C-Tier
Journal: Applied Economics
Year: 2001
Volume: 33
Issue: 3
Pages: 309-315

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This study integrates insights from three theories into a single model explaining the simultaneous distribution of employment and wages. Human capital theory is taken as the general framework, whereas search theory and the more recent 'crowding' or 'job competition' hypothesis are used to explain selectivity in employment and the resulting bias in wage regressions. An empirical test on Belgian data, using a two-stage probit-OLS model, indicates that the crowding theory dominates the search hypothesis for men. For women, it seems to be outweighed by relatively higher reservation wages, probably due to women's different behaviour with respect to family responsibilities.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:taf:applec:v:33:y:2001:i:3:p:309-315
Journal Field
General
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-26