Thierry Magnac

We use rich administrative panel data on private sector wages of males in France to estimate individual-specific wage equations derived from a Ben Porath model. This structural model of human capital investments over the life-cycle allows for interruptions in labour market participation and explicitly deals with missing data and attrition. Selection is modelled using a factor structure. Results show the strong influence of interruptions on wages profiles, in particular their means and variances. These results question the popular procedure of selecting out intermittent profiles when assessing wage inequalities over the life cycle.