The Rising Importance of Skill

该项目继续对相对工资的动态进行实证研究。在20世纪70年代和80年代，按性别、年龄和教育程度分类的群体内部的工资不平等现象急剧增加。不同群体之间的相对工资差异在1980年代有所增加，尽管1970年代的情况喜忧参半。1979年以来大学学历回报的上升，以及上世纪60年代末以来男性总体工资不平等的加剧，是相对工资变化的两个最重要的例子。先前的研究表明，与婴儿潮人群进入就业市场相关的年龄和学业完成程度分布的变化影响了群体之间的工资。在考虑了这些影响之后，数据显示了技能差距不断扩大的一致图景。这三个主要任务包括努力区分不同的解释。第一项任务是通过扩大以前的分析，包括女性、男女差别，来产生关于相对工资模式的额外证据，将变化分解为永久和临时的组成部分，并试图确定那些已变得更有价值的技能。第二个主要任务是研究普遍需求变化和特定部门需求变化对工资不平等的影响。第三个主要任务包括从工资本身扩展到工资与劳动力参与之间的相互作用。人们所熟悉的男性劳动参与率下降和女性劳动参与率增加的趋势，与支持劳动力供给功能正向倾斜的传统观念的工资变化相一致。分析将基于供需框架。若干主要数据集将用于该研究的各个分部分- -当前人口调查、收入动态小组调查和全国青年纵向调查。

The project continues empirical work concerning the dynamics of relative wages. Wage inequality within groups classified by gender, age and education increased enormously during the 1970s and 1980s. Relative wage differentials between groups increased during the 1980s, although patterns for the 1970s are mixed. The rise in returns to a college degree since 1979 and the rose in overall male wage inequality since the late 1960s are two of the most important examples of changing relative wages. Previous work suggests that changes in age and school completion distributions associated with the job market entry of the baby boom cohorts affected wages between groups. After accounting for such effects, the data show a consistent picture of rising skill differential. The three major tasks involve an effort to distinguish between alternative explanations. The first task is to generate additional evidence on relative wage patterns by extending the previous analysis to include females, male/female differentials, to decompose changes into permanent and temporary components, and to attempt to identify those skills that have become more valuable. A second major task is to examine the effects on wage inequality of generalized and sector-specific demand shifts. The third major task includes an extension from wages per se to the interaction between wages and labor force participation. The familiar trends towards decreased participation of men and increased participation of women are coincident with wage changes that support traditional notions of positively inclined labor supply functions. The analysis will be based on a supply and demand framework. Several major data sets will be used in the various subparts of the study - the Current Population Survey, the Panel Survey on Income Dynamics and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.