Cover: Labor Supply and Labor Demand over Business and Life Cycles.

Labor Supply and Labor Demand over Business and Life Cycles.

by Finis Welch

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An attempt to summarize what is known of the structure of labor supply and demand resulting from the emphasis on human capital in the literature. Human capital theories focus on individuals' careers and identify interrelationships among the phases of workers' life cycles. This helps us understand factors relevant to the skill composition of labor demand, both short- and long-run. Recognition of investment incentives in skill assimilation has also offered a basis for understanding labor supply over a worker's career. Thus, human capital theories have contributed to the state of the art of labor economics. There are many new questions that emerge. For example, we have assumed that because wages and schooling are correlated, schooling enhances earning capacity, and adequate attention has not been given to root causes for the earning power associated with schooling. Also, what are the interrelations between different kinds of ability and investments in human capital? 14 pp. Ref.

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