On estimating earnings functions for LDCs

A technique is developed for estimating earnings functions from data in which both wage-earners and self-employed persons are included; it is argued that the return to schooling is overestimated if only wage-earners are in the sample. A procedure for simultaneously imputing labor incomes to the self-employed is also developed and carried out with 1971 data for Bangkok, Thailand. The evidence suggests that ceteris paribus the self-employed have labor earnings at least as high as their wage-earning counterparts.     

盈余管理的实证研究综述

盈余管理的实证研究渐亦成为盈余管理研究的主要方面,而实证研究的具体内容却极其庞杂。通过对国内外学者盈余管理实证研究具体内容的探寻,进而发现盈余管理实证研究的发展趋势。盈余管理的实证研究内容正在从早期的专注于盈余管理动机手段等向注重于盈余管理与会计政策、关联交易、公司治理、审计、企业并购的关系等具体方面发展。     

Empirical comparison of the shape of welfare functions

This study compares the fit of the lognormal welfare function proposed by Van Praag (1968) with the fit of 12 other functions. The comparison uses a sample of about 14;000 respondents. The lognormal function outperforms 11 alternatives in terms of the residual variance criterion, while the logarithm performs slightly better.     

Computer knowledge and earnings: evidence for Australia

This paper uses data on wage and salary workers in Australia in 1993 to examine the relation between computer knowledge and earnings. A unique feature of the data set that is used is detailed information on the types and levels of computer skills possessed by individual workers. The main objectives of the study are to contribute to understanding the magnitude and sources of the relation between computer knowledge and earnings. Similar to existing research it is found that there is a large and significant return to computer knowledge, but that the magnitude of the return is substantially reduced in regressions that include detailed occupation controls. Using the detailed information on workers’ computer skills the main finding is that earnings are significantly positively related to the number of types of skills and average level of skills possessed by a worker.     

Self-selection bias in estimated wage premiums for earnings risk

This note develops a simple occupational choice model to examine three types of selection biases that may occur in empirically estimating the premium for uncertain wages. Individuals may select themselves into risky (wage-uncertain) jobs because they have (1) lower risk aversion, or (2) lower income risks, or (3) higher individual ability. We show that (1) gives no bias, (2) biases the OLS estimate of the risk-premium in a wage regression upward, and (3) yields a bias that analytically may be positive or negative, but empirically is more likely to be negative if our occupational choice model is correct.     

Errors in self-reported earnings: The role of previous earnings volatility and individual characteristics

I report the measurement error in self-reported earnings for a developing country using a novel data set. The data set consists of two cross-sections of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) wage and salary sectors; additionally, a subset of the two cross-sections may be linked to create a panel. Administrative data from FSM Social Security office are matched to the FSM Census data for the wage and salary sectors. I find that the error in annual self-reported earnings is centered on zero. Additionally, I find strong evidence for mean reversion in the data suggesting non-classical measurement error. I identify the impact of prior years' earnings variability on the current reporting of earnings using administrative data on earnings histories. Prior earnings volatility strongly affects measurement error in current period. However, the effect of prior shocks diminish significantly over time—suggesting that first-differencing and fixed-effects techniques will not improve accuracy.     

Intermittent work activity and earnings

Patterns of intermittent work activity appear to be more common in the modern labour market, at least for younger workers. This study extends earlier models of the relationship between labour market intermittency and earnings to include both part time work and nonparticipation, to differentiate between past work experience and current job tenure, to allow for nonlinear experience effects, and to account for selection bias arising from the exclusion of nonworkers. The results suggest that the effects of part time work and nonparticipation on earnings are similar. Moreover, some common patterns emerge: the effects are larger for women, greater for young workers, and greater when intermittency replaces current job tenure.     

Allocation and the earnings function

This paper stresses the view that earnings differentials should be interpreted in the light of allocation in the labor market. A model is developed that acknowledges the difference between individual levels of characteristics and the levels of such characteristics required in the job. It is applied to data sets for the Netherlands, with education as the most important variable. Neither the individual's education nor the requirements of the job alone are sufficient to determine earnings: they should be considered jointly. The earnings function containing allocation thus proves superior to the function derived from either human capital theory or from segmented labor market theory.     

Empirical tools to assess the sensitivity of directional distance functions to direction selection

Directional Distance Functions (DDFs) are becoming a popular way of measuring efficiency as they encompass the Shephard output and input distance functions as special cases. However, the most critical and still unsolved issue related to DDF remains the selection of the direction along which to measure the distance from the efficient frontier. In this article, we propose some empirical tools which allow to quantify the sensitivity of the efficiency measurement to the selection of the direction. The proposed tools are applied on a dataset on the Italian agricultural sector.     

Continuous utility functions for noninferior demand functions

Summary It is shown that if a demand function with no inferior goods satisfies the Slutsky conditions and has a convex range, then it is generated by a continuous utility function. The same conclusion holds when the Slutsky conditions are replaced by the strong axiom of revealed preference.     

Education,occupation and earnings: A recursive approach for France

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between education, occupation and earnings with an emphasis on the role of occupation in the determination of the effect of education on earnings. At the same time, several forms of human capital and other exogeneous variables are examined. The model is a recursive nature, and it was applied for French individual data. The result tells that despite very strong relationship between education and occupation, and between occupation and earnings, the relative significance of these relationships is greatly modified by different occupations (or classes). It was found also that men and women are considerably different not only as for the relationship between education, occupation and earnings, but also for several exogenous variables.     

The intergenerational persistence of lifetime earnings

This paper proposes a new method for estimating the intergenerational persistence of lifetime earnings from data that contain only short sections of individual earnings histories. The approach infers lifetime earnings persistence from the persistence of short earnings averages together with information about the stochastic process governing individual earnings. I find that lifetime earnings are substantially more persistent than previous estimates based on short panel data suggest. About 54% of lifetime earnings differences between fathers persist into their sons’ generation. This persistence estimate exceeds previous estimates based on five-year earnings averages by one third. These findings are robust against alternative assumptions about the data generating process for earnings.     

影响盈余信息含量的因素——来自A股的实证结果

研究中习惯用回报/盈余关系来表示会计盈余的信息含量.通过A股的实证结果发现,当时间窗口为公告日前后60天时,回报/盈余关系较显著;盈余的持续性越高,回报/盈余关系越显著;非线性的模型比线性模型的解释能力更强.但是模型总体的R2水平都较低,这可能是由于研究方法的缺陷、市场的非理性、盈余本身信息含量低等原因造成的.     

Directors network centrality and earnings quality

This study examines whether firms with network central boards of directors behave differently from other firms in terms of financial reporting quality. We find that earnings quality among firms is low when board networks are channels of incorrect information transmission (including earnings management information) and for firms whose directors are awarded equity-based compensation have connections through boardroom networks, but earnings quality is better for firms with good performance in spite of their networks. These results are robust to controlling for firm information environment, growth, size, age, leverage, performance, volatility in firm operations, and corporate governance.