Between Firm Changes in Earnings Inequality: The Dominant Role of Industry Effects

John Haltiwanger and James Spletzer

No 12990, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We find that most of the rising between firm earnings inequality that dominates the overall increase in inequality in the U.S. is accounted for by industry effects. These industry effects stem from rising inter-industry earnings differentials and not from changing distribution of employment across industries. We also find the rising inter-industry earnings differentials are almost completely accounted for by occupation effects. These results link together the key findings from separate components of the recent literature: one focuses on firm effects and the other on occupation effects. The link via industry effects challenges conventional wisdom.

Keywords: inequality; industry; occupation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2020-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-lma, nep-ltv, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Between Firm Changes in Earnings Inequality: The Dominant Role of Industry Effects (2020)
Working Paper: Between Firm Changes in Earnings Inequality: The Dominant Role of Industry Effects (2020)
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