I. Introduction, 551. — II. The autocorrelation of earnings and the variance of human capital, 553. — III. Applications of the variance of present values, 559. — IV. Conclusions, 564.

Journal Article Intergenerational Wealth Transfers and the Educational Decisions of Male Youth: The Mother's Home Time Hypothesis Get access Donald O. Parsons Donald O. Parsons Ohio State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 92, Issue 3, August 1978, Pages 521–524, https://doi.org/10.2307/1883158 Published: 01 August 1978

I. A simple schooling model, 605. — II. Estimation, 606. — III. An interpretation of actual and optimal schooling behavior, 615.

The egalitarian wage policies of labor unions in the United States have been attributed to low-skilled majorities pursuing their self-interest in a majority rule environment. For this hypothesis to be more than a formalization of stylized facts requires evidence that unions are not egalitarian when the work place is not characterized.by a low-skilled majority. The author considers the impact of high-skilled majorities on (1) voting behavior in certification elections and (2) rent distribution policies in existing unions. Neither analysis supports the belief that union rent distribution policies are driven by skill-group coalitions pursuing their self-interests.

An employed worker's search strategies include (1) employed-not searching, (2) employed-searching, and (3) unemployed-searching. The last requires that the worker quit to search. Under plausible assumptions on search costs, the optimal algorithm involves a dual reservation wage strategy (Burdett, 1978). The probability of on-the-job search increases as the current wage decreases relative to the distribution of alternative wages. If the wage is sufficiently low, the searcher quits to search, substituting time for financial outlays. Estimates based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth indicate that these calculations characterize the search strategies of young workers.