Skill-biased technological change and rising wage inequality: Some problems and puzzles

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Card, D; DiNardo, JE
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/342055
• 发表日期: 2002
• 页码: 733-783
• 关键词: Information technology; UNITED-STATES; earnings inequality; demand; white; LABOR; college; TRENDS; 1990s

摘要

The recent rise in wage inequality is usually attributed to skill-biased technical change (SBTC), associated with new computer technologies. We review the evidence for this hypothesis, focusing on the implications of SBTC for overall wage inequality and for changes in wage differentials between groups. A key problem for the SBTC hypothesis is that wage inequality stabilized in the 1990s despite continuing advances in computer technology; SBTC also fails to explain the evolution of other dimensions of wage inequality, including the gender and racial wage gaps and the age gradient in the return to education.