The payoff to skill and earnings inequality in the third industrial revolution
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation develops a new approach to analyzing changes in wage inequality in the United States, based on a comprehensive framework of nonmanual workplace skill, including cognitive, creative, technical and social types of skill, measured at the occupational level. By applying this framework to the individual-level 1983-2010 Current Population Surveys, we are able to adjudicate between competing accounts of the changing market structure, returns to skill, and wage inequality. We find substantial heterogeneity in the payoff to different types of skill. The most important trend under this multidimensional model is a precipitous increase in the payoff to analytical skill that involves synthesis, critical thinking, and abstract reasoning. This multidimensional approach is also helpful in expanding our knowledge on gender and racial gaps in skill and earnings. As we apply this model to different gender and racial groups separately, we find sizeable gender and racial disparities in terms of employment distribution and wage returns across different types of skill. We argue that this multidimensional framework of skill can better gauge the relationship between skill-biased trends and earnings inequality. These trends are driven more by institutional, social, and cultural changes than by narrowly defined technological change.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Liu, Yujia |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Sociology. |
| Primary advisor | Grusky, David B |
| Thesis advisor | Grusky, David B |
| Thesis advisor | England, Paula |
| Thesis advisor | Walder, Andrew G. (Andrew George), 1953- |
| Advisor | England, Paula |
| Advisor | Walder, Andrew G. (Andrew George), 1953- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Yujia Liu. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Sociology. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2012. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Yujia Liu
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