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.

教育的异质性在多大程度上导致财富不平等和生命周期储蓄，以及通过哪些途径？使用小组研究收入动态 (PSID) 数据，我估计特定技能的工资过程，允许确定性组间工资分散和随机组内工资分散。我使用家庭选择教育和劳动力供应的不完全市场重叠代一般均衡模型来评估这些工资过程的定量影响。我发现，允许工资流程因技能水平而异，对于理解熟练和非熟练家庭的财富不平等和生命周期储蓄至关重要。重要的，