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Post-Secondary Education and Increasing Wage Inequality

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Thomas Lemieux

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Abstract

The paper presents descriptive evidence from quantile regressions and more "structural" estimates from a human capital model with heterogenous returns to show that most of the increase in wage inequality between 1973 and 2005 is due to a dramatic increase in the return to post-secondary education. The model with heterogenous returns also helps explain why both the relative wages and the within-group dispersion among highly-educated workers have increased in tandem over time. These findings add to the growing evidence that, far from being ubiquitous, changes in wage inequality are increasingly concentrated in the very top end of the wage distribution.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12077.

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Date of creation: Mar 2006
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12077

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J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Thomas Lemieux, 2006. "Increasing Residual Wage Inequality: Composition Effects, Noisy Data, or Rising Demand for Skill?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 461-498, June. [Downloadable!]
  2. Olivier Deschenes, 2001. "Unobserved Ability, Comparative Advantage, and the Rising Return to Education in the United States: A Cohort-Based Approach," Working Papers 835, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
  3. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2005. "Rising Wage Inequality: The Role of Composition and Prices," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2096, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Berman, Eli & Bound, John & Griliches, Zvi, 1994. "Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor within U.S. Manufacturing: Evidence from the Annual Survey of Manufactures," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 109(2), pages 367-97, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2003. "Income Inequality In The United States, 1913-1998," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 118(1), pages 1-39, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Card, David, 2001. "Estimating the Return to Schooling: Progress on Some Persistent Econometric Problems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(5), pages 1127-60, September.
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  7. repec:fth:prinin:456 is not listed on IDEAS
  8. David Card & John E. DiNardo, 2002. "Skill-Biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(4), pages 733-783, October. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Juhn, Chinhui & Murphy, Kevin M & Pierce, Brooks, 1993. "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Returns to Skill," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(3), pages 410-42, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Enrico Moretti, 2008. "Real Wage Inequality," NBER Working Papers 14370, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Robert B. Archibald & David H. Feldman, 2006. "Explaining Increases in Higher Education Costs," Working Papers 42, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary. [Downloadable!]
  3. Kevin A. Bryan & Leonardo Martinez, 2008. "On the evolution of income inequality in the United States," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Spr, pages 97-120. [Downloadable!]
  4. Paul Bingley & Kaare Christensen & Ian Walker, 2007. "The Returns to Observable and Unobservable Skills over time: Evidence from a Panel of the Population of Danish Twins," Working Papers 200723, Geary Institute, University College Dublin. [Downloadable!]
  5. Mario Izquierdo & Aitor Lacuesta, 2007. "Wage inequality in Spain - recent developments," Working Paper Series 781, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
  6. repec:ese:iserwp: is not listed on IDEAS
  7. Cappellari, Lorenzo & Lucifora, Claudio, 2008. "The “Bologna Process” and College Enrolment Decisions," IZA Discussion Papers 3444, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2007. "The Race between Education and Technology: The Evolution of U.S. Educational Wage Differentials, 1890 to 2005," NBER Working Papers 12984, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Mary C. Daly & Osborne Jackson & Robert G. Valletta, 2007. "Educational attainment, unemployment, and wage inflation," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, pages 49-61. [Downloadable!]
  10. Fumio Ohtake & Shinji Takenaka, 2007. "Attitudes toward the Income Gap: Japan-U.S. Comparison," ISER Discussion Paper 0687, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University. [Downloadable!]
  11. Fredrik Andersson & Matthew Freedman & John C. Haltiwanger & Julia Lane & Kathryn L. Shaw, 2006. "Reaching for the Stars: Who Pays for Talent in Innovative Industries?," NBER Working Papers 12435, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  12. Robert Moffitt & Peter Gottschalk, 2008. "Trends in the Transitory Variance of Male Earnings in the U.S., 1970-2004," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 697, Boston College Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  13. Ioannis Cholezas & Panos Tsakloglou, 2007. "Earnings Inequality in Europe: Structure and Patterns of Inter-Temporal Changes," IZA Discussion Papers 2636, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  14. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2006. "The Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 11986, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  15. Mehtabul Azam, 2008. "Changes in Wage Structure in Urban India, 1983-2004: A Quantile Regression Decomposition," Departmental Working Papers 0807, Southern Methodist University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  16. Christian Dustmann & Johannes Ludsteck & Uta Schönberg, 2007. "Revisiting the German Wage Structure," IZA Discussion Papers 2685, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  17. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2005. "Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Re-Assessing the Revisionists," NBER Working Papers 11627, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  18. Flabbi, Luca & Leonardi, Marco, 2008. "Sources of Earnings Instability: Estimates from an On-the-Job Search Model of the U.S. Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 3387, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  19. Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2007. "Long-Run Changes in the U.S. Wage Structure: Narrowing, Widening, Polarizing," NBER Working Papers 13568, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-21.

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