Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Impact of Occupational Licensing on Wages, Inequality, and Diversity

SES -1303612 PI：大卫格鲁斯基合作PI：贝丝红鸟斯坦福大学该项目探讨了职业许可证影响工人工资和工资不平等的方式，以及这种关系如何根据工人和职业的人口统计特征而变化。值得注意的是，当代研究关注与收入不平等相关的新形式的分层，特别是劳动力市场结构变化造成的类型。然而，这些文献中的大部分都集中在群体之间的奖励结构的变化上，忽略了同样重要的可能性，即新的结构在群体内产生不同的奖励机会。本研究填补了以往研究的空白，聚焦于劳动力市场结构的巨大变化--职业许可证的兴起，具体探讨了：（1）职业许可证如何带来工资收益，（2）职业许可证是否会影响职业内部的工资不平等，（3）职业许可证是否会在性别和种族方面对劳动力进行重组。该研究使用了过去30年收集的全国代表性数据，以了解我们这个时代最重要的劳动力趋势之一是如何改变工资结构，不平等和职业多样性。虽然新古典经济理论为理解这些变化提供了一个有用的起点，但本项目也探讨了许可证本身可能创造工资和声望重新结构的机制的方式，这一过程因伴随许可证的制度化而得到加强。它还创造了一个国家认可的半精英结构，这可能会进一步分层奖励结构。因此，据推测，许可证增加不平等，同时增加传统上处于不利地位的群体的回报。更广泛的影响：许可证正在成为一种规范职业的方法，通常以提高工人素质和减少消费公众风险的名义。然而，执照对职业内劳动力市场的组成和工人所经历的工资不平等的影响相对未知。该项目提供了一个机会，使经验证据承担有关国家政策的问题，可以使相对于他们在工作场所的效率，对工人的满意度，对不同社区内的工资和工资不平等的影响的努力。

SES - 1303612PI: David GruskyCo-PI: Beth Red BirdStanford UniversityThis project explores ways in which licensing in an occupation impacts wages and wage inequality among workers, and how this relationship might vary based on the demographic features of workers and occupations. There is notable contemporary research concerned with new forms of stratification associated with income inequality, particularly types resulting from changes in the structure of the labor market. Much of this literature, however, has focused on the shifting reward structure between groups, ignoring the equally important possibility that new structures produce different reward opportunities within groups. This project fills a gap in past research by focusing on a dramatic change in labor market structure: the rise in occupational licensing.Specifically, this research explores: (1) how wage benefits derive from licensure, (2) whether licensure impacts wage inequality within occupations, and (3) whether licensure restructures the workforce in terms of gender and race. The study uses nationally representative data collected over the last thirty years to understand how one of the most substantial labor force trends of our time is altering the structure of wages, inequality, and diversity within occupations. While neoclassical economic theory provides a useful starting point from which to understand these changes, this project also explores ways in which licensure itself may create mechanisms through which wages and prestige are re-structured, a process that is enhanced by the institutionalization that accompanies licensure.Licensure is expected to produce a modest wage premium for licensed workers, it also creates a state-endorsed semi-meritocratic structure which may further stratify reward structures. Thus, it is hypothesized that licensure increases inequality while simultaneously increasing rewards to traditionally disadvantaged groups.Broader Impacts: Licensure is becoming a method of regulating occupations, usually in the name of enhancing quality of workers and reducing risks to the consuming public. However, the effects of licensure on the composition of intra-occupational labor markets and on the wage inequality experienced by workers are relatively unknown. This project offers the opportunity to bring empirical evidence to bear on questions about state policies that can enable efforts relative to their impact on efficiencies in the workplace, on satisfaction of workers, and on wages and wage inequality within varying communities.