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Author: Reimers, Cordelia
Resulting in 3 citations.
1. Garvey, Nancy
Reimers, Cordelia
Predicted vs. Potential Work Experience in an Earnings Function for Young Women
Research in Labor Economics 3 (1980): 99-127
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: JAI Press, Inc.
Keyword(s): Children; Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Earnings; Health Factors; Marriage; Schooling; Work Experience

When an earnings function is estimated and data on actual work experience are unavailable, potential work experience--age minus educational attainment minus 5 (or 6)--is often substituted for actual experience. This paper explores the biases introduced by this procedure and proposes that predicted experience, based on demographic information, be used instead. Using NLS data, we estimate a predicting equation, by both OLS and Tobit methods, for women under age 30. We then compare the estimated earnings functions using potential, predicted, and actual work experience, and we find that the coefficients estimated using potential experience differ substantially from those estimated using either predicted or actual experience, whereas the latter are very close together. Moreover, the bias introduced by using potential experience varies by race.
Bibliography Citation
Garvey, Nancy and Cordelia Reimers. "Predicted vs. Potential Work Experience in an Earnings Function for Young Women." Research in Labor Economics 3 (1980): 99-127.
2. Reimers, Cordelia
The Timing of Retirement of American Men
Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1977
Cohort(s): Older Men
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Employment; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Income Dynamics/Shocks; Retirement/Retirement Planning; Work Attitudes

The study investigates the historical trend in age at retirement, using U.S. Census data on age-specific labor force participation rates and population. It was found that the mean age at retirement remained constant across cohorts of men born between 1866 and 1900, but the variance decreased over time. A behavioral model was developed in which retirement is timed to maximize lifetime utility. A linear probability equation predicting retirement in the following two years was estimated using data from the NLS of Older Men and the Michigan PSID; it was found that poor health and job dissatisfaction are more important than financial variables in inducing early retirement. Finally, the determinants of divergence between expected and actual retirement date and of work after retirement were examined using the NLS data.
Bibliography Citation
Reimers, Cordelia. The Timing of Retirement of American Men. Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1977.
3. Reimers, Cordelia
Garvey, Nancy
Toward a Better Measure of Work Experience
Working Paper No. 119, Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University, 1979
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University
Keyword(s): Job Tenure; Racial Differences; Research Methodology; Work History

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper supports the use of the NLS as being one of the few data sets which provide measures of experience adequate for estimating an earning function as well as all the other data needed. Using the Young Women's cohort, the authors specify equations to predict work experience. The results indicate that demographic information can be used to improve the prediction of experience over that resulting from the common practice of using "potential experience". Not only do race and health make significant differences to amount of experience, but it is also found that marriage and childbearing have significant effects on accumulated work experience of women even at relatively young ages. In light of the significant improvement of the linear estimating equation over the traditional method of estimating experience, the authors feel a Tobit estimation would improve the fit still further. Given data sets with sufficient detail on work histories, this general method could also be applied to provide better predicting equations for actual experience for men and older women.
Bibliography Citation
Reimers, Cordelia and Nancy Garvey. "Toward a Better Measure of Work Experience." Working Paper No. 119, Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University, 1979.