Tyler Smith
Since the 1970s, an increasingly large percentage of income in the United States has gone to a select few at the top of the earnings distribution. But data limitations have hampered economists’ efforts to pinpoint the drivers of this growing inequality.
In a paper in the American Economic Review, authors John Haltiwanger, Henry R. Hyatt, and James R. Spletzer show that the overall increase in wage inequality is driven by a small number of industries. High-wage workers are increasingly sorted into high-wage industries, such as high-tech, while low-wage workers are increasingly sorted into low-wage industries, such as fast food and retail.
The researchers drew their conclusions from analyzing the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) linked employer–employee data, which includes detailed wage records and employer information from 1996 to 2018 and covers roughly 44 percent of national employment.
Πηγή: www.aeaweb.org