Bureau and Anne Polivka of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for assistance in using the data, and to Elizabeth Cascio for outstanding research assistance. We also thank David Autor, Daniel Hamermesh, and participants at the SOLE meeting and at the Royal Statistical Society’s “Explanations for Rising Economic Inequality”

A large literature documents a substantial rise in U.S. wage inequality and educational wage differentials during the 1980s and early 1990s and concludes that these wage structure changes can be accounted for by shifts in the supply of and demand for skills reinforced by the erosion of labor market institutions supporting low- and middlewage workers. Drawing on an additional decade of data, several “revisionist ” studies reject this consensus to conclude that (1) the rise in wage inequality was an “episodic ” event of the first-half of the 1980s, (2) this rise was mainly caused by a falling minimum wage, and (3) increased residual wage inequality since the mid-1980s reflects the confounding effects of labor force composition. We reexamine these claims using data from the Current Population Survey for 1963 to 2005 and find only limited support. A slowing of the growth of overall wage inequality in the 1990s hides a divergence in the paths of upper-tail (90/50) and lower-tail (50/10) inequality. Uppertail wage inequality has been increasing steadily since 1980 even after adjusting for labor force composition changes. Lower-tail wage inequality increased sharply in the first-half of the 1980s but has flattened or narrowed since the late 1980s. Strong time series correlations of the real minimum wage and upper-tail wage inequality raise questions concerning the causal interpretation of relationships between the minimum wage and both overall and

to Stuart Gurrea for preparing the figures. "Technology and Economic Performance in the American Economy" This paper examines the sources of the U. S. macroeconomic miracle of 1995-2000 and attempts to distinguish among permanent sources of American leadership in hightechnology industries, as contrasted with the particular post-1995 episode of technological acceleration, and with other independent sources of the economic miracle unrelated to technology. The core of the American achievement was the maintenance of low inflation in the presence of a decline in the unemployment rate to the lowest level reached in three decades. The post-1995 technological acceleration, particularly in information technology (IT) and accompanying revival of productivity growth, directly contributed both to faster output growth and to holding down the inflation rate, but inflation was also held down by a substantial decline in real non-oil import prices, by low energy prices through early 1999, and by a temporary cessation in 1996-98 of inflation in real medical care prices. In turn low inflation allowed the Fed to maintain an easy monetary policy that fueled

Analyzing the causes of earnings inequality is an area where the stakes are high. Earnings make up the lion’s share of individual incomes 1 and income inequality, when severe, is one of the most deleterious social and economic problems. It threatens a nation’s social cohesion; by pitting people against one another, it puts a strain on democratic political processes. It is often associated with health problems, resentment, hopelessness, crime, and other social pathologies. The debate about the causes of earnings inequality has momentous policy implications, which go to the heart of the divide between conservatives and liberals, between those who trust the free market mechanism and those who call for government intervention. If inequality is viewed as the price we must pay for economic efficiency, then the policy question is how much national income we are willing to sacrifice for a more equal division of that income. Yet if inequality is itself viewed as a form of inefficiency, then it becomes natural to

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One of the most pressing questions facing researchers and policy makers today is how economic restructuring has affected the nature of work in America. In a case study of retail banking, we investigated how changes in the banking industry over the past two decades have affected branch-level jobs. We find a strategy of market segmentation that has had variable effects on job quality. While platform workers have been upgraded and their job quality has improved, for tellers we find mixed changes. In general, branch work at all levels has been transformed, entailing more complex functions, greater use of technology, and a less rigid division of labor. This is a restructuring process still underway, one that is redefining the role of branch-level employees. 1 INTRODUCTION One of the most pressing questions facing researchers and policy makers today is how economic restructuring has affected the nature of work in America. The nature of competition and product markets, the structure of wo...

After two decades of rising wage inequality, it is important to examine the impact of these changes on lifetime wage growth. This paper compares the intragenerational mobility of two NLS cohorts of young white men: the first entered the labor market in the late 1960s, the second in the early 1980s. For each cohort, we analyze wage profiles across 16 years using a mixed-effects model. We find that long-term wage growth has both stagnated and become more unequal in recent years. Changes in the composition of and returns to education, experience, occupation and other covariates explain about half the rise in inequality, leaving a significant residual. Our findings suggest a decline in the economic welfare of workers who entered the labor market in the 1980s. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION....................................................................................... 1 DATA.......................................................................................................... 5...

The wage structure in the U.S. public sector responded sluggishly to substantial changes in private sector wages during the 197Os and 198Os.

Cover image:RSBS research has explained why scattered (diffuse) light is so critical for plant growth.

Strong job growth, a vigorous bull market, and other indicators are taken by many as evidence that the Nation is healthy and well positioned for the next century. Yet in recent decades income inequality has widened, poverty rates have remained high even during economic expansions, and disparities between cities and suburbs have grown more pronounced than ever before. In this article we draw on the Center for Urban Policy Research “State of the Nation’s Cities ” database to document 10 prominent changes affecting large cities in the past 30 years. We show how the technological change, globalization, demographic trends, and selective flows of people, jobs, and wealth have magnified inequality at the regional, metropolitan, and neighborhood levels. Particularly for older industrial cities, the processes driving national growth continue to reinforce inequalities in opportunity for individuals and communities. Henderson, Nevada, is not well known to urbanists, but it has the distinction of being the fastest-growing city in America: Its population ballooned by fully 88 percent from 1990 to 1996 (Holmes, 1997; Bureau of the Census, 1997). This desert suburb and the other nine fastest growing cities reported by the Census Bureau shared several characteristics: ■ They were relatively small—all but one had a 1990 population of less than 200,000. ■ Several were suburbs of larger urban centers. 1 ■ Several were cities close to the Mexican border.