TY  - JOUR
AU  - Medoff,James L.
AU  - Abraham,Katharine G.
TI  - Can Productive Capacity Differentials Really Explain Earnings Differentials Associated with Demographic Characteristics? Case of Experience
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 363
PY  - 1981
Y2  - September 1981
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0363
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0363.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
James L.. Medoff
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Littauer Center 115
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/495-4209
E-Mail: jmedoff@harvard.edu

Katharine G. Abraham
Joint Program in Survey Methodology
1218 LeFrak Hall
University of Maryland
College Park, MD  20742
Tel: 301/405-1004
Fax: 301/314-7912
E-Mail: kabraham@survey.umd.edu
M1  - published as Medoff, James L. and Abraham, Katharine G. "Are Those Paid More Really More Productive? The Case of Experience." The Journal of Human Resources, Vol. XVI, No. 2, (Spring 1981), pp. 186-216.
AB  - This study uses computerized personnel microdata on the white male managerial and professional employees at a major U.S. corporation to address the following question: Can the additional earnings which are associated with more labor market experience at a point in time really be explained by higher productivity at the same point in time? Our answer to this question, based on both cross-sectional and longitudinal information, is that performance plays a substantially smaller role in explaining cross-sectional experience-earnings differentials and earnings growth than is claimed by those who have adopted the human capital explanation of the experience-earnings profile. This response depends critically on our assumption that the performance ratings which supervisors give to their white male managerial and professional subordinates adequately reflect the subordinates' relative productivity in the year of assessment; we present a great deal of evidence which strongly supports this assumption.
ER  -