Cookies?
Library Header Image
LSE Research Online LSE Library Services

Wage inequality, technology and trade: 21st century evidence

Van Reenen, John ORCID: 0000-0001-9153-2907 (2011) Wage inequality, technology and trade: 21st century evidence. Labour Economics, 18 (6). 730 - 741. ISSN 0927-5371

Full text not available from this repository.

Identification Number: 10.1016/j.labeco.2011.05.006

Abstract

This paper describes and explains some of the principal trends in the wage and skill distribution in recent decades. Increases in wage inequality started in the US and UK at the end of the 1970s, but are now widespread. A good fraction of this inequality trend is due to technology-related increases in the demand for skilled workers outstripping the growth of their supply. Since the early 1990s, labor 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 labor market, but through a different mechanism than conventionally thought.

Item Type: Article
Official URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/labour-econo...
Additional Information: © 2011 Elsevier B.V.
Divisions: Economics
Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
T Technology > T Technology (General)
JEL classification: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Time Allocation, Work Behavior, and Employment Determination and Creation; Human Capital; Retirement > J23 - Employment Determination; Job Creation; Demand for Labor; Self-Employment
J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Time Allocation, Work Behavior, and Employment Determination and Creation; Human Capital; Retirement > J24 - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Technological Change; Research and Development > O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
Date Deposited: 17 Oct 2011 10:34
Last Modified: 14 Feb 2024 00:10
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/38921

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item