US earnings inequality has increased dramatically since the 1970s, and the prospect of a reversal depends on what caused the trend. The standard explanation emphasizes skill-biased technical change. This paper briefly considers some aggregation issues and then proceeds to outline two alternative...

We develop a model of a city populated by heterogeneous agents. Agents self-select into entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurs set up firms which hire workers. We characterize the equilibrium matching between firms and workers, as well as the within-city assignment of agents to locations. We then...

Two strictly comparable cross-section household datasets, relating to 1988 and 1995, are used to analyse the increase in wage inequality from an initially low level in urban China over this period of labour market reform. The institutional background and the evolution of policy are described....

This paper examines the wage differentials between local and migrant workers in the local labor markets of urban China by using unique data that survey both migrants and local residents from the same community. The results suggest that the wage differentials between the two groups can be...

The massive downsizing of the state-owned sector and the concomitant impressive growth of the private sector at the end of the 1990s have altered the nature of the Chinese labor market. By bringing in more competition and market mechanisms, they have contributed to increasing labor turnover and...

Technology can affect the distribution of income directly via its influence on both the bargaining power of different parties and the marginal product of different factors of production. This paper focuses mainly on the first route. The role of power is transparent in the case of medieval choke...