It's Where You Work: Increases in Earnings Dispersion across Establishments and Individuals in the U.S

Erling Barth, Alex Bryson, James Davis and Richard Freeman

No 20447, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper links data on establishments and individuals to analyze the role of establishments in the increase in inequality that has become a central topic in economic analysis and policy debate. It decomposes changes in the variance of ln earnings among individuals into the part due to changes in earnings among establishments and the part due to changes in earnings within-establishments and finds that much of the 1970s-2010s increase in earnings inequality results from increased dispersion of the earnings among the establishments where individuals work. It also shows that the divergence of establishment earnings occurred within and across industries and was associated with increased variance of revenues per worker. Our results direct attention to the fundamental role of establishment-level pay setting and economic adjustments in earnings inequality.

JEL-codes: D3 J3 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
Note: LS PR
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

Published as Journal of Labor Economics, Volume 34, Number S2, Part 2, April 2016

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Related works:
Working Paper: It's Where You Work: Increases in Earnings Dispersion across Establishments and Individuals in the U.S (2015)
Working Paper: It's Where You Work: Increases In Earnings Dispersion Across Establishments And Individuals In The U.S (2014)
Working Paper: It's Where You Work: Increases in Earnings Dispersion across Establishments and Individuals in the US (2014)
Working Paper: It’s where you work: increases in earnings dispersion across establishments and individuals in the US (2014)
Working Paper: It's Where You Work: Increases in Earnings Dispersion across Establishments and Individuals in the U.S (2014)
Working Paper: It's Where You Work: Increases in Earnings Dispersion across Establishments and Individuals in the U.S (2014)
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