IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v54y2001i2ap466-483.html

Industrial Change and Wage Inequality: Evidence from the Steel Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Patricia Beeson
  • Lara Shore-Sheppard
  • Kathryn Shaw

Abstract

The empirical analysis in this paper, which draws on Current Population Survey data, indicates that structural decline in the steel industry during the 1980s markedly affected the distribution of wages both in the industry and in steel-producing communities. The steelworker wage distribution experienced both a drop in the mean and an increase in the variance, becoming very similar to the distribution of wages in other durable goods manufacturing industries. Declines in steel employment substantially increased wage inequality in steel-producing communities, even among workers not employed in steel.

Suggested Citation

  • Patricia Beeson & Lara Shore-Sheppard & Kathryn Shaw, 2001. "Industrial Change and Wage Inequality: Evidence from the Steel Industry," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(2A), pages 466-483, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:54:y:2001:i:2a:p:466-483
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390105400225
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001979390105400225
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/001979390105400225?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Levernier, William & Partridge, Mark D. & Rickman, Dan S., 1998. "Differences in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan U.S. Family Income Inequality: A Cross-County Comparison," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 272-290, September.
    2. Katz, Lawrence F. & Autor, David H., 1999. "Changes in the wage structure and earnings inequality," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 26, pages 1463-1555, Elsevier.
    3. William J. Carrington, 1993. "Wage Losses for Displaced Workers: Is It Really the Firm That Matters?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(3), pages 435-462.
    4. Bartik, Timothy J., 1996. "The Distributional Effects of Local Labor Demand and Industrial Mix: Estimates Using Individual Panel Data," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 150-178, September.
    5. Kletzer, Lori Gladstein, 1989. "Returns to Seniority after Permanent Job Loss," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 536-543, June.
    6. Colin Lawrence & Robert Z. Lawrence, 1985. "Manufacturing Wage Dispersion: An End Game Interpretation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 16(1), pages 47-116.
    7. John T. Addison & Pedro Portugal, 1987. "The Effect of Advance Notification of Plant Closings on Unemployment," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 41(1), pages 3-16, October.
    8. Rebecca M. Blank & David Card, 1993. "Poverty, Income Distribution, and Growth: Are They Still Connected," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 24(2), pages 285-340.
    9. DiNardo, John & Fortin, Nicole M & Lemieux, Thomas, 1996. "Labor Market Institutions and the Distribution of Wages, 1973-1992: A Semiparametric Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(5), pages 1001-1044, September.
    10. 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 410-442, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nicolas Fleury & Fabrice Gilles, 2012. "MOBILITES INTERGENERATIONNELLES DE CAPITAL HUMAIN ET RESTRUCTURATIONS INDUSTRIELLES. UNE EVALUATION POUR LE CAS DE LA France, 1946-1999," Working Papers hal-00988949, HAL.
    2. W. D. McCausland & F. Summerfield & I. Theodossiou, 2020. "The Effect of Industry-Level Aggregate Demand on Earnings: Evidence from the US," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 102-127, June.
    3. Paul Beaudry & David A. Green & Benjamin Sand, 2007. "Spill-Overs from Good Jobs," NBER Working Papers 13006, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Nicolas Fleury & Fabrice Gilles, 2015. "An evaluation of the impact of industrial restructuring on individual human capital accumulation in France (1956-1993)," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(1), pages 414-429.
    5. Patricia Beeson & Fredrick Tannery, 2004. "The Impact of Industrial Restructuring on Earnings Inequality: The Decline of Steel and Earnings in Pittsburgh," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 21-41, February.
    6. Stephan D. Whitaker, 2016. "Industrial Composition and Intergenerational Mobility," Working Papers (Old Series) 1533R, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 22 Oct 2020.
    7. Black, Dan A. & McKinnish, Terra G. & Sanders, Seth G., 2003. "Does the availability of high-wage jobs for low-skilled men affect welfare expenditures? Evidence from shocks to the steel and coal industries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 1921-1942, September.
    8. Sargent, Thomas & Ljungqvist, Lars, 2002. "The European Employment Experience," CEPR Discussion Papers 3543, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Patricia Beeson & Fredrick Tannery, 2004. "The Impact of Industrial Restructuring on Earnings Inequality: The Decline of Steel and Earnings in Pittsburgh," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 21-41, February.
    2. Patricia Beeson & Lara Shore-Sheppard & Christopher Briem, 2000. "The Effect of Local Fiscal Policies on Urban Wage Structure," Department of Economics Working Papers 2000-04, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    3. Xuejun Liu & Albert Park & Yaohui Zhao, 2010. "Explaining Rising Returns to Education in Urban China in the 1990s," Trade Working Papers 22720, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    4. Yosr Abid & Cathal O'Donoghue & Denisa Sologon, 2016. "Decomposing Welfare Inequality in Egypt and Tunisia: an Oaxaca-Blinder Based Approach," Working Papers 1015, Economic Research Forum, revised Jun 2016.
    5. Michel Lubrano & Abdoul Aziz Junior Ndoye, 2014. "Bayesian Unconditional Quantile Regression: An Analysis of Recent Expansions in Wage Structure and Earnings Inequality in the US 1992–2009," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 61(2), pages 129-153, May.
    6. Fligstein, Neil & Shin, Taek-Jin, 2003. "The shareholder value society: A review of the changes in working conditions and inequality in the U.S., 1976-2000," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt0z85d717, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    7. Fabián Slonimczyk, 2013. "Earnings inequality and skill mismatch in the U.S.: 1973–2002," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(2), pages 163-194, June.
    8. Frederiksen, Anders & Poulsen, Odile, 2010. "Increasing Income Inequality: Productivity, Bargaining and Skill-Upgrading," IZA Discussion Papers 4791, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2005. "Trends in U. S. Wage Inequality: Re-Assessing the Revisionists," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2095, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    10. Idrisov, Georgiy (Идрисов, Георгий) & Taganov, B.V. (Таганов, Б.), 2016. "Research of the Effect of Growth of Openness of the Russian Economy on Income Inequality in Russia [Исследование Влияния Роста Открытости Российской Экономики На Неравенство Доходов Населения В Рос," Working Papers 3136, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    11. Borghans, Lex & ter Weel, Bas, 2007. "The diffusion of computers and the distribution of wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 715-748, April.
    12. Kijima, Yoko, 2006. "Why did wage inequality increase? Evidence from urban India 1983-99," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 97-117, October.
    13. 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.
    14. Biewen, Martin & Seckler, Matthias, 2017. "Changes in the German Wage Structure: Unions, Internationalization, Tasks, Firms, and Worker Characteristics," IZA Discussion Papers 10763, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Saiah Lee, 2023. "Macroeconomic Conditions and Wage Inequality: Expanding and Analyzing the Worldwide Dataset," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 24(2), pages 329-362, November.
    16. Carrington, William J & Zaman, Asad, 1994. "Interindustry Variation in the Costs of Job Displacement," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(2), pages 243-275, April.
    17. Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza & Luis C. Carvajal-Osorio, 2020. "Two Stories of Wage Dynamics in Latin America: Different Policies, Different Outcomes," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 128-168, June.
    18. Joseph G. Altonji & Nicolas Williams, 2005. "Do Wages Rise with Job Seniority? A Reassessment," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 58(3), pages 370-397, April.
    19. Acemoglu, Daron & Aghion, Philippe & Violante, Giovanni L., 2001. "Deunionization, technical change and inequality," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 229-264, December.
    20. Qiao Wen, 2022. "Trends in College–High School Wage Differentials in China: The Role of Cohort-Specific Labor Supply Shift," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-23, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:54:y:2001:i:2a:p:466-483. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.