Footnote:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments June 25, 2014 erstellt
Description:
I document a strong negative cross-country correlation between intergenerational earnings persistence and measures of tax progressivity - and level, and between intergenerational earnings persistence and public expenditure on tertiary education. To explain these correlations I then develop an intergenerational life-cycle model of human capital accumulation and earnings, which features, progressive taxation, public education expenditure, and borrowing constraints among the determinants of earnings persistence. I calibrate the model to US data and use it to decompose the contributions to earnings persistence from different model elements and to quantify how earnings persistence in the US changes as I introduce tax - and education expenditure policies from other countries. I find that individual investments in human capital account for 73% of the estimated intergenerational earnings persistence in the US. Taxation, through its impact on investments in human capital, can explain 50% of the variation between the US and 10 other countries, whereas borrowing constraints, which have received much attention in the literature, have a limited impact on earnings persistence