Abstract
Recently, a renewed interest in wage structure analysis has been brought about by the increase in wage inequality observed in the USA during the 1980s. In particular, there has been a lot of research on the increasing wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers, and with respect to educational attainment. The following reasons have been pointed out as causes of increased wage differences: (1) the increase in supply of unskilled and poorly educated workers (Katz and Murphy, 1992; Borjas, Freeman and Katz, 1992); (2) the decrease in demand for unskilled workers due to an increase in the imports of labour-intensive goods (Murphy and Welch, 1992; Johnson and Stafford, 1993); (3) technological progress with a biased demand towards skilled and highly educated labour (Bound and Johnson, 1992; Davis and Haltiwanger, 1991; Mincer, 1993); (4) the decrease of the union participation rate (Freeman, 1993); and (5) the increase of foreign competition in concentrated industries (Borjas and Ramey, 1995).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Borjas, George J. and Valerie A. Ramey (1995) ‘Foreign Competition, Market Power, and Wage Inequality’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 110, no. 4, pp. 1075–1110.
Borjas, George J., Richard B. Freeman and Lawrence F. Katz (1992) ‘On the Labor Market Effects of Immigration and Trade’, in George J. Boras and Richard B. Freeman (eds), Immigration and the Work Force: Economic Consequences for the United States and South Areas (Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press).
Bound, John, and George Johnson (1992) ‘Changes in the Structure of Wages in the 1980s: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations’, American Economic Review, vol. 82, no. 3, pp. 371–92.
Brown, Charles and James Medoff (1989) ‘The Employer Size-Wage Effects’, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 97, no. 5, pp. 10, 27–59
Brunello, Giorgio and Kenn Ariga (1995) ‘Is the Tenure-Earning Curve Really Steeper in Japan? A Re-examination Based on UK-Japan Comparison’, in Mituaki Okabe (ed.), The Structure of the Japanese Economy (New York: St Martin’s Press).
Clark, Robert L. and Naohiro Ogawa (1992a) ‘The Effect of Mandatory Retirement on Earnings Profiles in Japan’, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 258–66.
Clark, Robert L. and Naohiro Ogawa (1992b), ‘Employment Tenure and Earnings Profiles in Japan and the United States: Comment’, American Economic Review, vol. 82, no. 1, pp. 336–45.
Davis, Steven J. (1992) ‘Cross-Country Patterns of Change in Relative Wages’, NBER Macroeconomics Annual, pp. 239–92.
Davis, Steven J., and John Haltiwanger (1991) ‘Wage Dispersion between and within U.S. Manufacturing Plants, 1963–86’, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity: Microeconomics, pp. 115–80.
Freeman, Richard B. (1993) ‘How Much Has De-Unionization Contributed to the Rise in Male Earnings Inequality?’, in Sheldon Danziger and Peter Gottschalk, (eds), Uneven Tides: Rising Inequality in America (New York: Russell Sage Foundation).
Freeman, Richard B. and Lawrence F. Katz (1991) ‘Industrial Wage and Employment Determination in an Open Economy’, in John Abowd and Richard Freeman (eds), Immigration, Trade and the Labor Market (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press)
Genda, Yui (1997) ‘Japan’, Chapter 2 of this book.
Hashimoto, Masanori and John Raisian (1985) ‘Employment Tenure and Earning Profiles in Japan and the United States’, American Economic Review, vol. 75, pp. 721–35.
Hashimoto, Masanori and John Raisian (1992) ‘Employment Tenure and Earnings Profiles in Japan and the United States: Reply’, American Economic Review, vol. 82, pp. 346–54.
Inoki, Takenori (1994) ‘Tenure and Experience by Occupation: Comparison between Japan and the US’, Economic Review (Keizai Kenkyu), vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 289–300 (in Japanese).
Johnson, George E. and Franc P. Stafford (1993) ‘International Competition and Real Wages’, American Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings) vol. 83, pp. 127–30.
Juhn, Chinjhui, Kevin M. Murphy and Brooks Pierce (1993) ‘Wage Inequality and the Rise in the Return to Skill’, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 101, pp. 410–42.
Katz, Lawrence F. and Kevin M. Murphy (1992) ‘Changes in Relative Wages, 1963–1987: Supply and Demand Factors’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. CVII, pp. 35–78.
Katz, Lawrence F., Gary W. Loveman and David Blanchflower (1995) ‘A Comparison of Changes in the Structure of Wages in Four OECD Countries’, in Richard B. Freeman and Lawrence F. Katz (eds), Differences and Changes in Wage Structure (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press).
Levy, Frank and Murnane, Richard (1992) ‘U.S. Earnings Levels and Earnings Inequality: A Review of Recent Trends and Proposed Explanations’, Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 1333–81.
Mincer, Jacob (1993) ‘Human Capital, Technology, and the Wage Structure: What do the Time Series Show?’, in his Studies in Human Capital (Aldershot: Edward Elgar).
Mincer, J. and Y. Higuchi (1988) ‘Wage Structure and Labor Turnover in the United States and Japan’, Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 97–133.
Murphy, Kevin M. and Finis Welch (1992) ‘The Structure of Wages’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. CVII, pp. 285–326.
Ohkusa, Yasushi and Souichi Ohta (1994) ‘An Empirical Study of the Wage-Tenure Profile in Japanese Manufacturing’, Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, vol. 8, pp. 173–203.
Ohtake, Fumio (1994) ‘Income and Wealth Distribution in the 1980s’, Economic Studies Quarterly (December) (in Japanese).
Sachs, Jeffrey (1988) ‘Global Adjustments to a Shrinking U.S. Trade Deficit’, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, pp. 639–74.
Topel, Robert (1994) ‘Wage Inequality and Regional Labor Market Performance in the United States’, American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, vol. 84, no. 2, pp. 17–22.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1998 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ohtake, F. (1998). The United States. In: Tachibanaki, T. (eds) Wage Differentials. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26281-6_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26281-6_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-26283-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-26281-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)