Econometrica

Journal Of The Econometric Society

An International Society for the Advancement of Economic
Theory in its Relation to Statistics and Mathematics

Edited by: Guido W. Imbens • Print ISSN: 0012-9682 • Online ISSN: 1468-0262

Econometrica: Sep, 2013, Volume 81, Issue 5

Life Expectancy, Schooling, and Lifetime Labor Supply: Theory and Evidence Revisited

https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA11169
p. 2055-2086

Matteo Cervellati, Uwe Sunde

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the role of life expectancy for optimal schooling and lifetime labor supply. The results of a simple prototype Ben‐Porath model with age‐specific survival rates show that an increase in lifetime labor supply is not a necessary, or a sufficient, condition for greater life expectancy to increase optimal schooling. The observed increase in survival rates during working ages that follows from the “rectangularization” of the survival function is crucial for schooling and labor supply. The empirical results suggest that the relative benefits of schooling have been increasing across cohorts of U.S. men born between 1840 and 1930. A simple quantitative analysis shows that a realistic shift in the survival function can lead to an increase in schooling and a reduction in lifetime labor hours.


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Supplement to "Life Expectancy, Schooling, and Lifetime Labor Supply: Theory and Evidence Revisited"

This appendix contains additional figures not found within the manuscript.

Supplement to "Life Expectancy, Schooling, and Lifetime Labor Supply: Theory and Evidence Revisited"

A zip file containing replication files for the manuscript.