Changes in Earnings Inequality: The Role of Demand Shifts

Abstract

That the relative demand for labor in the upper segment of the skill distribution has been shifting is a widely accepted ‘stylized fact’ in the literature on the increase in earnings inequality that has occurred since the late 1970s. Explanations of the causes of the relative demand shifts range from effects of increased integration of the world economy to skill-based technological change (reflecting, in part, the computerization of production processes). However, relative demand for skilled labor has been increasing fairly steadily since 1940, a fact having implications about the causes of both the demand shifts and recent increases in inequality.