[The estimation of a CES production function for real sectoral value added with factor augmenting technological change first is discussed, with emphasis on the possible effects of the deflation procedure utilized and on the attempt to estimate relatively long-run parameters. The estimates of that function for nine Chilean sectors then are examined with respect to the implied degree of sectoral flexibility, the absorption of surplus labor, the implications for linear assumptions about Chilean production functions, the distribution of income, and the degree of constraint on long-run growth due to a relative shortage of a primary factor.]

"Birth-order effects are posited by many to affect earnings and schooling. We show how such effects can be interpreted to shift either the earnings possibility frontier for siblings or parental preferences. We find empirical evidence for birth-order effects on (age-adjusted) schooling and on earnings for young U.S. adults, though the latter is not robust for all specifications. The examination of intrahousehold allocations suggests that these birth-order differences occur despite parental preferences or prices by birth order favoring later borns, apparently because of stronger endowment effects that favor first borns."

Although much research discusses the quantity of schooling as an effective impact on productivity and earnings, most such research leaves out the idea of the quality of schooling which may cause biases in the estimated returns to schooling. This paper, consequently, attempts to extend the standard Mincerian approach to incorporate school quality as well as quantity. It demonstrates how exclusion of quality in the standard procedure may cause biases in the estimated returns to years of schooling, probably in the upward direction. The paper explores the implications of this extension of the standard model for the case of young Brazilian males. It shows that the estimate of the private return to years of schooling using the preferred quality-inclusive specification is only one-half the estimate using the standard procedure, indicating substantial upward bias in the standard estimates. It further outlines a method for estimating a social return to quality and finds that it exceeds substantially the social return to quantity. The paper then shows why this in turn suggests there may be an equity-productivity trade-off in schooling investments.

Jere Behrman, Paul Taubman, Intergenerational Earnings Mobility in the United States: Some Estimates and a Test of Becker's Intergenerational Endowments Model, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Feb., 1985), pp. 144-151

Parents can transmit income and wealth to their offspring directly through bequests and gifts of financial assets. Parents can augment a child's skills and traits through the provision of, for example, education, diet and doctors. Biological parents also supply the genetic endowments which provide skills useful in the labor market. Although practically a virgin territory, it is important to estimate the effects of genetic endowments and common (mostly family) environment on earnings and on other indices of individual attainment in order to gauge the effectiveness of programs designed to improve equality of opportunity. Also if genetics and common environment are not controlled for, biased estimates of regression coefficients of observable variables, such as years of education, often are obtained.

We modify R. A. Fisher's model by incorporating measures of the environment that may be correlated across kin groups. We estimate a model of schooling attainment using data on eight kin groups and find a large contribution of genetic endowments to the variance in schooling though certain aspects of the environment matter.

The income elasticity of calories generally is substantially smaller than the income elasticity of food expenditure. One reason may be an increasing concern for food variety as incomes increase. Food variety can be linked with two characteristics of food indifference curves: (1) curvature and (2) location of the curves relative to the axes. Estimates suggest increasing taste for variety as food budgets increase. Therefore, such taste for variety apparently underlies in part the low income elasticities for calorie demand, which in turn cast doubt on the World Bank assertion that the nutrient intakes of poor populations will improve rapidly with income. Copyright 1989 by MIT Press.

Unequal access to financing for education may be an important source of educational differences. We develop a model relating sib schooling and earnings similarities to sibship size with and without equal access and estimate it for the education of veterans, for whom the GI Bill assured equal access, and for their children, who had no such government assistance. We find an inverse relationship between sibship size and sib schooling and earnings similarities for the children, but not for the veterans; we conclude that, in the absence of equal access policies, unequal access is an important source of educational differences.