Trade, Technology and UK Wage Inequality

Jonathan Haskel (j.haskel@ic.ac.uk) and Matthew Slaughter

No 2091, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: The U.K. skill premium fell from the 1950s to the late 1970s and then rose very sharply. This paper examines the contributions to these relative wage movements of international trade and technical change. We first measure trade as changes in product prices and technical change as TFP growth. Then we relate price and TFP changes to a set of underlying factors. Among a number of results, we find that changes in prices, not TFP, were the major force behind the rise in inequality in the 1980s. We also find that although increased trade pressure has raised technical change, its effect on wage inequality was not quantitatively significant.

Keywords: Technology; Trade; Wage Inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F1 J3 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999-03
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Trade, Technology and U.K. Wage Inequality (2001)
Working Paper: Trade, Technology and U.K. Wage Inequality (1999)
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