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Title: Changes in Inequality among Recent Labor Market Entrants--The Role of the Rising Skill Intensity of Females

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 1999

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Abstract: The increase in earnings inequality in the U.S. is now well documented1. Over a period of nearly 20 years, the returns to both education and experience have continued their steady rise. As a result, more educated workers gained relative to less skilled workers, whose real wages fell not only in relative terms, but also in absolute terms.The question which this paper addresses is whether these increases in the price of skill have led to an offsetting increase in supply of skilled workers, which would have dampened the growth in inequality. While it might be assumed that the experience composition of labor force is largely driven by demographics, it would be more surprising if the educational composition of labor force was not responding to this nearly two decade long increase in the returns to college. The question we ask is whether the skill intensity of recent cohorts (who have made educational decisions during the period of rising returns to college) show any evidence of responding to the rising skill premium, even with a substantial lag.

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Authors: Gottschalk, Peter; Pizer, Steve

Conference Name: Harvard University Inequality and Social Policy Summer Institute

Publisher Location: Cambridge, MA

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Poverty and Welfare

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