Sample Selection Bias As a Specification Error (with an Application to the Estimation of Labor Supply Functions)

James J. Heckman

NBER Working Paper No. 172
Issued in March 1977

---- Acknowledgements -----

The research reported in this paper was supported by an HEW grant to the Rand Corporation and a U.S. Department of Labor grant to the National Bureau of Economic Research. A previous version of this paper circulated under the title "Shadow Prices, Market Wages, and Labor Supply Revisited: Some Computational Simplifications and Revised Estimates," June 1975. I have greatly benefited from conversations with Paul Schultz and James Smith, and from detailed written comments of Mark Killingsworth on the first draft of this paper. Takeshi Amemiya, John Cogan, Reuben Gronau, Ed Leamer, H. G. Lewis, and Bill Rodgers all made valuable comments on the second draft. Gary Becker, Tom MaCurdy and Arnold Zellner made valuable comments on this draft. Ralph Shnelvar performed the computations. I assume all responsibility for any remaining errors.

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