Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Re-Assessing the Revisionists

Abstract

A large literature documents a substantial rise in U.S. wage inequality and educational wage differentials over the past several decades and finds that these trends can be primarily accounted for by shifts in the supply of and demand for skills reinforced by the erosion of labor market institutions affecting the wages of low-and middle-wage workers. Drawing on an additional decade of data, a number of recent contributions reject this consensus to conclude that (1) the rise in wage inequality was an "episodic" event of the first-half of the 1980s rather than a "secular" phenomenon, (2) this rise was largely caused by a falling minimum wage rather than by supply and demand factors; and (3)

Inequality of opportunity in the land of opportunities, 1968–2001

“…Alternatively, for a given circumstances group it is possible to observe more earnings variation, since effort differences are defined by within group inequality. Since Juhn et al [23] these kinds of phenomena have been much discussed in the literature, it is nowadays commonly admitted that within-group inequality represents a large share of earnings inequality growth, see Lemieux [27] or Autor et al [5] for recent assessments.…”

“…The Theil index growth rate from 1980 to 2001 is around 79% (from .13 in 1980 to .24 in 2001). However, during the second half of the nineties the growth of earnings inequality is weaker before increasing over the last few years of the sample as described by Lemieux [27], Autor et al [5] and Gottschalk and Danziger [19].…”

“…We have used every wave from 1968 to 2001. 5 Children of households have been followed when they leave the family. This data base is a leading source for longitudinal studies on the U.S.…”

“…They are on the one hand exogenous to individual choice and on the other hand partially correlated with their offspring's earnings. Individual circumstances include age, the number of years of education of both parents, the occupational group of the father (six groups) and the individual ethnic group (one dummy variable for individuals of the black 5 Data of year n cover year n-1. Hence the full period in 1967-2000.…”

Pathways from Education to Depression

“…Although Korea provides the National Health Insurance (NHI), providing universal health insurance coverage to all citizens, its benefit levels are limited, leaving beneficiaries with relatively high copayments (Jeong 2011). Autor et al (2005) found that health returns to education were increasing in the 1980s and 1990s as earnings returns to education were also increasing. Previous studies that controlled income in estimating the effect of education on health, however, find that education coefficients remain significant (Smith 2007).…”