Full Citation

Title: The Great Compression of the 1940s: The Public Versus the Private Sector

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2002

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Between 1940 and 1950 wage differentials narrowed substantially, a phenomenon that economic historians have called the 'Great Compression.' This paper dis-aggregates the Great Compression into changes within and between the public and private sectors. We show that wage differentials declined in the public sector as well as in the private sector; had the public sector decline not taken place, the Great Compression would have been substantially smaller. In this regard, the experience of the 1940s stands in stark contrast with that of the past two decades, during which a relatively rigid public sector wage structure has dampened overall increases in wage inequality.

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Margo, RA; Finegan, TA

Periodical (Full): Explorations in Economic History

Issue: 2

Volume: 39

Pages: 183-203

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Poverty and Welfare

Countries: