Wage inequality and structural change

Arbeitspapier

Income inequality in the context of large structural change has received a lot of attention in the literature, but most studies relied on household post-transfer inequality measures. This study utilizes a novel and fairly comprehensive collection of micro data sets from between 1980's and 2010 for both advanced market economies and economies undergoing transition from central planning to market based system. We show that wage inequality was initially lower in transition economies and immediately upon the change of the economic system surpassed the levels observed in advanced economies. We find a very weak link between structural change and wages in both advanced and post-transition economies, despite the predictions from skill-biased technological change literature. The decomposition of changes in wage inequality into a part attributable to changes in characteristics (mainly education) and a part attributable to changes in rewards does not yield any leading factors.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IAAEU Discussion Paper Series in Economics ; No. 01/2018

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity ; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions ; Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Europe: 1913- ; Comparative Studies of Countries ; Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty ; Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems
• Subject: wage inequality ; structural change ; transition ; skill biased technological change

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Tyrowicz, Joanna ; Smyk, Magdalena
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Trier, Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU)
• (where): Trier
• (when): 2018

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/173135
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET