Human Capital Investment with Competitive Labor Search We study human capital accumulation in an environment of competitive search. Given that unemployed workers can default on their education loans, skilled individuals with a larger debt burden prefer riskier but better paid careers than is socially desirable. A higher level of employment risk in turn depresses the skill premium and the incent...

The objective of this study was to identify possible changes in mRNA and protein expression of high-mobility group box protein 1 (HMGB1) and its suggested receptors - receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) and Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and TLR4 - in human cervix during pregnancy, term and preterm labor. Cervical biopsies were taken from 58 women: 20 at preterm labor, 24 at term l...

We analyze the implications of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Tanzania for labor markets and human capital accumulation. Three analyses are undertaken. First, we examine the 2000/01 Labor Force Survey and compare it with the 1990/91 Labor Force Survey. Since these two surveys encompass a period where accumulated AIDS deaths increased dramatically, their comparison provides an opportunity to make infe...

Bonded labor has been already widespread since ancient times and has flourished at various periods in most countries. Bonded labor is outlawed by the 1956 U.N. Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, and most countries have passed their own ban. However, it is estimated that millions of people are still held in bo...

We solve and estimate a dynamic model that allows agents to optimally choose their labor hours and consumption and that allows for both human capital accumulation and savings. Estimation results and simulation exercises indicate that the intertemporal elasticity of substitution is much higher than the conventional estimates and the downward bias comes from the omission of the human capital accu...

We develop a model of retirement and human capital investment to study the effects of tax and retirement policies. Workers choose the supply of raw labor (career length) and also the human capital embodied in their labor. Our model explains a significant fraction of the US-Europe difference in schooling and retirement. The model predicts that reforms of the European retirement policies modeled ...

This study examines the disclosure of labor-related costs by US firms, and estimates the proportion of these costs that are valued as an asset (human capital) by the market. Separate identification of labor-related costs in US financial reports is voluntary, and is made consistently only by about 10% of all US Compustat firms. The probability of disclosure is found to be positively related to f...

We previously investigated the progesterone metabolite 5β-dihydroprogesterone (5βDHP) in relation to human parturition at term, demonstrating that peripheral venous concentrations decrease in association with the onset of spontaneous labour. In this study our aim was to determine if 5βDHP concentrations were lower in women presenting in spontaneous preterm labour than in controls matched for ge...

1. Simple labor supply models with correction for non-participation (PS #3) 2. Other approaches to kinked budget sets discretization 3. Dynamic labor supply introduction and overview Readings Thomas A. Mroz. “The Sensitivity of an Empirical Model of Married Women’s Hours of Work to Economic and Statistical Assumptions.” Econometrica, 55 (4) (July, 1987), pp. 765-799. Arthur van Soest "Structura...

Reproductive success is critical for survival of the species. The timely onset of labor and delivery is an important determinant of perinatal outcome. Preterm birth (defined as delivery before 37 weeks’ gestation) and post-term pregnancy (defined as pregnancy continuing beyond 42 weeks) are both associated with a significant increase in perinatal morbidity and mortality. The factors responsible...