When they were in their early twenties, women in the National Longitudinal Surveys' sample underestimated their future work involvement. Expectations for working at age 35 gradually increased. Plans for working were significant independent predictors of actual work behavior and planning to work yielded a significant wage advantage. (CH)

Data from black and white women ages 34-44 (1968-88) showed that differences in characteristics did not explain occupational segregation by race nor the racial wage gap. During the 1980s, the gap was influenced by widening differences in access to occupations and an increase in returns to education. (SK)

Utilizing data on the work experience of women, the authors examine both the empirical specification of human capital models of earnings in the presence of discontinuous work experience over the life cycle and simultaneous-equations models of wage determination and labor supply. (EM)

Based on the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women aged fourteen to twenty-four in 1968, a study was made to determine the impact that women's ex ante labor market expectations have on their salary and development and to examine the effect of women's postschool training and maturation (human capital accumulation) on wages. Six findings…

Human capital theory indicates that receipt of on-the-job training is positively related to expectations of future labor force participation. Young women may underestimate their future labor force attachment and therefore underinvest in on-the-job training. (JOW)

This paper discusses specification and interpretation of human capital models of women's earnings when data on actual work experience are available. It uses the segmented earnings function framework developed by Jacob Mincer and Solomon Polachek and considers the effects of data errors, issues involving data interpretation, consequences of model…