Multitasking and Wages

Dennis J. Snower () and Dennis Görlich
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Dennis J. Snower: Hertie School of Governance

No 7426, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper sheds light on how changes in the organization of work can help to understand increasing wage inequality. We present a theoretical model in which workers with a wider span of competence (higher level of multitasking) earn a wage premium. Since abilities and opportunities to expand the span of competence are distributed unequally among workers across and within education groups, our theory helps to explain (1) rising wage inequality between groups, and (2) rising wage inequality within groups. Under certain assumptions, it also helps to explain (3) the polarization of the income distribution. Using a rich German data set covering a 20-year period from 1986 to 2006, we provide empirical support for our model.

Keywords: wage inequality; multitasking; tasks; organizational change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 L23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2013-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Multitasking and Wages (2013)
Working Paper: Multitasking and Wages (2013)
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