TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cunha,Flavio
AU  - Heckman,James J.
TI  - A New Framework for the Analysis of Inequality
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12505
PY  - 2006
Y2  - September 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12505
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12505.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Flavio Cunha
University of Pennsylvania
Department of Economics
160 McNeil Building
3718 Locust Walk
Philadelphia  PA  19104
E-Mail: fcunha@sas.upenn.edu

James J. Heckman
Department of Economics
The University of Chicago
1126 E. 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/702-0634
Fax: 773/702-8490
E-Mail: jheckman@uchicago.edu
AB  - This paper presents a new framework for analyzing inequality that moves beyond the anonymity postulate. We estimate the determinants of sectoral choice and the joint distributions of outcomes across sectors. We determine which components of realized earnings variability are due to uncertainty and which components are due to components of human diversity that are forcastable by agents. Using our tools, we can determine how policies shift persons across sectors and outcome distributions across sectors.
ER  -