Wage inequality, technology and trade: 21st century evidence

Abstract

This paper describes and explains some of the principal trends in the wage and skill distribution in recent decades. There have been sharp increases in wage inequality across the OECD, beginning with the US and UK at the end of the 1970s. A good fraction of this inequality growth is due to technology-related increases in the demand for skilled workers outstripping the growth of their supply. Since the early 1990s, labour markets have become more polarized with jobs in the middle third of the wage distribution shrinking and those in the bottom and top third rising. I argue that this is because computerization complements the most skilled tasks, but substitutes for routine tasks performed by middle wage occupations such as clerks, leaving the demand for the lowest skilled service tasks largely unaffected. Finally, I argue that technology is partly endogenous, for example it has been spurred by trade with China. Thus, trade does matter for changes in the labour market through inducing faster technical change rather than just through the conventional Heckscher-Ohlin mechanism.

Multiple-Product Firms and Product Switching

“…where [ 1 − g e (φ * )] is the ex ante probability of drawing a productivity above the zero-value cutoff φ * upon entry, g e (φ) is the probability of drawing productivity φ upon entry, and v(φ) is the solution to the Bellman equation (7). General equilibrium is referenced by the following six variables and functions: the zero-value cutoff productivity below which firms exit φ * , the zero-profit cutoff consumer taste for each product for a firm with the zero-value cutoff productivity λ * i (φ * ), the endogenous stationary distribution for firm productivity γ g (φ), the endogenous stationary distribution for consumer tastes for each product γ z i (λ i ), the price index for each product p i , and aggregate revenue for each product R i .…”

Cross-National Deployment of “Graduate Jobs”: Analysis Using a New Indicator Based on High Skills Use

“…The main attributed global drivers have been technological and organisational changes, alongside the evolving global division of labour. The emphasis has mainly been on technological change (Acemoglu and Autor, 2011;Machin and Van Reenen, 1998;Van Reenen, 2011); ICT, especially, is held to have raised the productivity of graduate workers over the last 30 years or so. This skill biased technological change (SBTC) is thought to be the principle driver behind the growth in the demand for graduate labour.…”

Türkiye’de Sektörel Eşitsizlikler ve Sayısal Bölünme İlişkisi

“…Avantajlarının yanı sıra kaybettirdikleri de olan emek hareketliliğinin başlıca nedeni olarak, sektörler arasındaki ücret farklılıkları görülmektedir (Stephenson & Hufbauer, 2011: 278). Yüksek ücretlerin olduğu sektörlerde kalifiye işçi talebinin de yüksek olduğunu vurgulayan Van-Reenen (2011)'e göre, ücretlerdeki artışın temel sebebi bu talep artışıdır. Yüksek ücretler nedeniyle sektörlerde çalışan kalifiye işçilerin artması, üretim değerleri ve çalışan sayısı gibi değişkenleri etkileyerek, uzun dönemde de sektörler arasındaki eşitsizliklerin artmasına sebep olacaktır (Deininger & Squire, 1998: 275).…”