EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Institutional Changes and Rising Wage Inequality: Is There a Linkage?

Nicole Fortin and Thomas Lemieux

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1997, vol. 11, issue 2, 75-96

Abstract: In this paper, the authors analyze the role of three institutional changes--the decline in the real value of the minimum wage, deunionization, and economic deregulation--on the rise in wage inequality in the United States during the 1980s. They argue that about a third of the increase in male and female wage inequality can be traced to these institutional changes. Deunionization had a significant effect on the rise in inequality for men, while the minimum wage is what matters most for women. The authors find the direct impact of economic deregulation to be comparatively small.

JEL-codes: J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997
Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.11.2.75
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (239)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.11.2.75 (application/pdf)

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:jecper:v:11:y:1997:i:2:p:75-96

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

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Perspectives is currently edited by Enrico Moretti

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

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:11:y:1997:i:2:p:75-96