摘要 : To what extent does heterogeneity in education contribute to wealth inequality and life-cycle savings, and through which pathways? Using the Panel Study Income Dynamics (PSID) data, I estimate skill-specific wage processes, allowi... 展开 To what extent does heterogeneity in education contribute to wealth inequality and life-cycle savings, and through which pathways? Using the Panel Study Income Dynamics (PSID) data, I estimate skill-specific wage processes, allowing for both deterministic between-group wage dispersion and stochastic within-group wage dispersion. I evaluate the quantitative implications of these wage processes using an incomplete-markets overlapping-generations general equilibrium model in which households choose their education and labor supply. I find that allowing wage processes to vary by skill levels is crucial to understanding wealth inequality and life-cycle savings of skilled and unskilled households. Importantly, stochastic within-group wage dispersion plays a key role in explaining the concentration of wealth at the top and the large difference in the life-cycle savings between the two skill groups. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 收起