Industries, Mega Firms, and Increasing Inequality

John Haltiwanger, Henry Hyatt and James R. Spletzer ()
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James R. Spletzer: Independent Researcher

No 15197, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Most of the rise in overall earnings inequality is accounted for by rising between-industry dispersion from about ten percent of 4-digit NAICS industries. These thirty industries are in the tails of the earnings distribution, and are clustered especially in high-paying high-tech and low-paying retail sectors. The remaining ninety percent of industries contribute little to between-industry earnings inequality. The rise of employment in mega firms is concentrated in the thirty industries that dominate rising earnings inequality. Among these industries, earnings differentials for the mega firms relative to small firms decline in the low-paying industries but increase in the high-paying industries. We also find that increased sorting and segregation of workers across firms mainly occurs between industries rather than within industries.

Keywords: inequality; firm size; industry; wage differentials; sorting; segregation; pay premium (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 78 pages
Date: 2022-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-com, nep-ent, nep-lma, nep-ltv, nep-sbm and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Working Paper: Industries, Mega Firms, and Increasing Inequality (2022)
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