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Changes in Unemployment and Wage Inequality: An Alternative Theory and Some Evidence

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Daron Acemoglu

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Abstract

This paper offers a model where firms decide what types of jobs to create and then search for suitable workers. When there are few skilled workers and the productivity gap between the skilled and the unskilled is small, firms create a single type of job and recruit all workers. An increase in the proportion of skilled workers or skill-biased technical change can create a qualitative change in the composition of jobs, increasing the demand for skills, wage inequality, and the unemployment rates for both groups. The paper provides some evidence that there has been a change in the composition of jobs in the U.S. during the past two decades.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 6658.

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Date of creation: Jul 1998
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Publication status: published as Acemoglu, Daron. "Changes In Unemployment And Wage Inequality: An Alternative Theory And Some Evidence," American Economic Review, 1999, v89(5,Dec), 1259-1278.
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6658

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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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. Shaked, Avner & Sutton, John, 1984. "Involuntary Unemployment as a Perfect Equilibrium in a Bargaining Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(6), pages 1351-64, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Eli Berman & John Bound & Zvi Griliches, 1994. "Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor within U.S. Manufacturing Industries: Evidence from the Annual Survey of Manufacturing," NBER Working Papers 4255, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Kremer, M. & Maskin, E., 1995. "Segregation by Skill and the Rise in Inequality," Papers e-95-7, Stanford - Hoover Institution.
  4. Nickell, Stephen & Bell, Brian, 1995. "The Collapse in Demand for the Unskilled and Unemployment across the OECD," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 40-62, Spring.
  5. Lawrence F. Katz & Kevin M. Murphy, 1991. "Changes in Relative Wages, 1963-1987: Supply and Demand Factors," NBER Working Papers 3927, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Acemoglu, Daron, 1997. "Good Jobs versus Bad Jobs: Theory and Some Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 1588, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Rubinstein, Ariel, 1982. "Perfect Equilibrium in a Bargaining Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 97-109, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Diamond, Peter A, 1982. "Aggregate Demand Management in Search Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(5), pages 881-94, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Francesco Caselli, 1999. "Technological Revolutions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 78-102, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Jill Constantine & David Neumark, 1994. "Training and the Growth of Wage Inequality," NBER Working Papers 4729, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 1998. "Computing Inequality: Have Computers Changed The Labor Market?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(4), pages 1169-1213, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Peter Cappelli, 1996. "Technology and skill requirements: implications for establishment wage structures," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, pages 139-156.
  13. Mortensen, Dale T, 1982. "Property Rights and Efficiency in Mating, Racing, and Related Games," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(5), pages 968-79, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Barron, John M & Bishop, John & Dunkelberg, William C, 1985. "Employer Search: The Interviewing and Hiring of New Employees," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(1), pages 43-52, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Sattinger, Michael, 1995. "Search and the Efficient Assignment of Workers to Jobs," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 36(2), pages 283-302, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Acemoglu, D. & Shimer, R., 1997. "Efficient Wage Dispersion," Working papers 97-7, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
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  17. Topel, Robert H & Ward, Michael P, 1992. "Job Mobility and the Careers of Young Men," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 107(2), pages 439-79, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  18. Burdett, Ken & Coles, Melvyn G, 1997. "Marriage and Class," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(1), pages 141-68, February.
  19. Acemoglu, Daron & Shimer, Robert, 2000. "Wage and Technology Dispersion," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 67(4), pages 585-607, October.
  20. Sattinger, Michael, 1993. "Assignment Models of the Distribution of Earnings," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 831-80, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Peter Cappelli & Steffi L Wilk, 1997. "Understanding Selection Processes: Organization Determinants and Performance Outcomes," Working Papers 97-14, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau. [Downloadable!]
  22. Sicherman, Nachum, 1991. ""Overeducation" in the Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(2), pages 101-22, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  23. 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)
  24. Daron Acemoglu, 1998. "Why Do New Technologies Complement Skills? Directed Technical Change And Wage Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(4), pages 1055-1089, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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