DP2321 Inequality of Earnings

Author(s):	Dennis J. Snower
Publication Date:	December 1999
Keyword(s):	Earnings, Education, Globalization, Income Distribution, Inequality, Labour Supply, Minimum Wage, Organizational Change, Skilled and Unskilled Workers, Technological Change, Unionization, Wage Rigidities
JEL(s):	D23, D24, D31, D33, D63
Programme Areas:	Labour Economics, Public Economics
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=2321

This paper surveys major empirical regularities concerning changes in earnings inequality in Europe and the US over the past 25 years. Next, it indicates which of these regularities can be explained within the competitive demand-supply framework of analysis and what is left unexplained. Finally, it considers the implications of organizational change as a possible rationale for recent inequality developments.