Collaborative Research: The Organizational Production of Earnings Inequalities

马萨诸塞州阿姆赫斯特大学（AmherstUniversity of Massachusetts）SES-1524787达斯汀·阿文特-霍尔特（Dustin Avent-Holt）加州大学欧文分校（University of California-Irvine）SES-1524761安德鲁·彭纳（Andrew Penner）乔治亚摄政大学（Georgia Regents University）收入不平等加剧是高收入国家的一个普遍问题。虽然国民收入和财富不平等的广泛轨迹是显而易见的，但人们对产生这些令人不安的趋势的工作场所和体制动态知之甚少。本项目研究工作场所收入分配的动态，这是整体收入分配的主要组成部分。研究人员将利用六个国家15年来几乎所有私营部门工作场所及其员工的现有行政数据，研究工作场所层面的不平等水平和趋势。 这项研究围绕两个核心问题展开：是什么因素导致了工作场所的整体收入不平等？工作场所如何加剧或减轻教育水平、性别或移民身份等个人差异的影响？ 独特的比较人口水平的数据设计，使研究小组能够解决这两个问题，在跨国家和次国家的时间背景下，问：如何不平等产生机制不同的制度背景的功能？ 关于不平等的政策辩论主要集中在国家一级的政府再分配上，往往忽视了由于工作场所薪酬的变化，收入分配变得更加不平等。这项研究将工作场所纳入了国家不平等水平和轨迹分析的中心。目前的政策讨论往往忽视国家机构和工作场所做法在鼓励或阻止不平等结果方面的作用。基于关系不平等理论，该项目研究了产生组织收入水平和分配的一般社会机制，以及它们受制度环境调节的程度。该研究将关联雇主-雇员小组（LEEP）数据与当地机构知识相结合，分析了六个国家（德国、法国、瑞典、挪威、斯洛文尼亚和捷克共和国）私营部门几乎所有雇员与所有雇主相关联的数据，这些国家拥有高质量的LEEP数据，大约从2000年至今。这项研究有助于揭示潜在的干预措施，通过教育投资，平等机会执法，工资下限和上限，以及其他机构的干预，影响组织的不平等变化。更好地理解和记录为什么一些公司比其他公司产生更少的不平等，将为不平等是一个自然发生的过程的观点提供强有力的反证。探索国家内部和国家之间的组织差异将揭示与当代产品和劳动力市场约束相适应的不平等制度的范围。此外，通过将性别和族裔/公民身份不平等与工作场所不平等的结构联系起来，动态研究结果可能会揭示增加历史上被边缘化群体的社会包容的新途径。

SES-1528294Donald Tomaskovic-DeveyUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstSES-1524787 Dustin Avent-HoltUniversity of California-IrvineSES-1524761Andrew PennerGeorgia Regents UniversityRising income inequality is a widespread problem in high income countries. While the broad trajectories of national income and wealth inequalities are apparent, little is known about the workplace and institutional dynamics that produce these disturbing trends. This project investigates the dynamics of workplace earnings distributions, a major component of the overall income distribution. The researchers will take advantage of available administrative data on nearly all private sector workplaces and their employees for six countries over fifteen years to examine workplace level inequality levels and trends. The research centers on two central questions: What factors drive overall income inequality in workplaces? How do workplaces exacerbate or mitigate the impact of individual distinctions, such as education level, gender or immigrant status? The unique comparative population level data design allows the research team to address these two questions in both cross- and sub-national temporal contexts, asking: How do inequality generating mechanisms vary as a function of institutional context? Policy debates about inequality primarily focus on government redistribution at the national level, often ignoring that income distributions have become more unequal because of workplace compensation shifts. The study brings workplaces into the center of the analysis of national inequality levels and trajectories. Current policy discussions often ignore the role of national institutions and workplace practices in encouraging or discouraging inequality outcomes. Building on Relational Inequality Theory the project examines the generic social mechanisms that produce both levels and distributions of organizational incomes and the degree to which they are moderated by institutional context. Combining Linked Employer-Employee Panel (LEEP) data with local institutional knowledge the research analyses data on virtually all employees linked to all employers in the private sector for six countries with high quality LEEP data: Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, from circa 2000 to the present. This study helps uncover the potential for interventions via educational investments, equal opportunity enforcement, wage floors and ceilings, and other institutional interventions that influence organizational variation in inequalities. Better understanding and documenting why some firms produce less inequality than others will provide a powerful counter-narrative to the idea that inequality is a naturally occurring process. Exploring organizational variation within and between countries will reveal the range of inequality regimes compatible with contemporary product and labor market constraints. Further, by linking gender and ethnic/citizenship inequalities to the structure of workplace inequality dynamics study results may reveal new paths for increasing social inclusion of historically marginalized groups.