The Slow Diffusion of Earnings Inequality

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sorkin, Isaac; Wallskog, Melanie
• 署名单位: Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Duke University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/726635
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: S95-S127
• 关键词: firms

摘要

Rising between-firm pay dispersion accounts for the majority of the dramatic increase in earnings inequality in the United States in the last several decades. This paper shows that a distinct cross-cohort pattern drives this rise: newer cohorts of firms enter more dispersed and stay more dispersed throughout their lives. These cohort patterns suggest a link between changes in firm entry associated with the decline in business dynamism and the rise in earnings inequality. Cohort effects also imply a slow diffusion of inequality: inequality rises as younger and more unequal cohorts of firms replace older and more equal cohorts.