Trends in Earnings Differentials across College Majors and the Changing Task Composition of Jobs

Joseph Altonji, Lisa Kahn and Jamin Speer

American Economic Review, 2014, vol. 104, issue 5, 387-93

Abstract: We show that, among college graduates, earnings differentials across field of study have increased substantially since the early 1990s. We study the degree to which this increase can be accounted for by changes in the labor market return to skills associated with a major. To do so, we define major-specific measures of the relative importance of abstract, routine, and manual tasks on the job, by linking majors to the occupations they typically lead to. Changes in the relationship between earnings and these measures can account for about two-thirds of the rise in inequality.

JEL-codes: J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.5.387
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (72)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.104.5.387 (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/app/10405/P2014_1129_app.zip (application/zip)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/10405/P2014_1129_data.zip (application/zip)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10405/P2014_1129_ds.zip (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:104:y:2014:i:5:p:387-93

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().