Wage inequality, tasks and occupations

Carol Scotese ()

No 1201, Working Papers from VCU School of Business, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper assesses the relationship between occupation attributes and changes in wage inequality finding partial support for the computerization hypothesis. While wages associated with non-routine cognitive tasks have risen; current versions of the hypothesis cannot explain the pattern of within occupation wage changes, the differential impact of various types of non-routine cognitive tasks and the declining return to tasks that complement machines. Despite significant employment shifts, occupational composition alone matters little for changes in wage inequality. Changes in wage dispersion within occupations are quantitatively just as important as wage changes between occupations for explaining wage inequality between 1980 and 2000.

Keywords: wage inequality; computerization; skill; tasks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 69 pages
Date: 2012-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vcu:wpaper:1201

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