Explaining the Unexplained: Residual Wage Inequality, Manufacturing Decline and Low-skilled Immigration

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gould, Eric D.
• 署名单位: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12611
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 1281-1326
• 关键词: labor-market; technological-change; demand; IMPACT; TRADE; polarization; EMPLOYMENT; migration; inflows; shifts

摘要

This article investigates whether the increasing residual wage inequality' trend, which is responsible for most of the wage inequality phenomenon, is related to manufacturing decline and the influx of low-skilled immigrants. The analysis exploits variation across locations in the United States, and shows that a shrinking manufacturing sector increases inequality. This effect strengthens with an influx of low-skilled immigrants. Similar results are found for the increasing return to education and the decline in the employment rate. The evidence suggests that manufacturing decline is producing downward pressure on the relative wages of workers at the low end of the income distribution.