During the last 15 years--especially in the 1980s--wage inequality rose in the United States. It appears that this can be explained by a secular shift in production functions favoring workers with intellectual rather than manual skills, together with slower growth in the supply of skilled labor...

This article investigates two prominent explanations--technology and trade--for growing wage inequality by educational attainment. The analysis indicates a prominent role for technological improvements and a modest but still significant role for increased competition from imports.

Training programs targeted toward lower skilled workers to a much greater extent than is currently the case could play an important role in narrowing the wage gap. Specific strategies would include assisting firms to develop their own programs, improving the school-to-work transition for...

The increase in wage inequality during the 1980s was exceptional, but underlying demand and supply conditions showed relatively little contrast compared to previous decades. One possible explanation is that the increased demand for skills during the 1980s was unusually concentrated among the...

Both the growing college/high school earnings gap and the generally slow growth of real earnings have generated frustration with the political system. in the short run the earnings gap is likely to remain at roughly its current level. Over time, however, the increased concentration of low income...

The authors use a multitude of data sources to provide a comprehensive, multidimensional decomposition of wages across both time and educational status. Their results confirm the importance of investments in and use of technology, which has been the focus of most of the previous literature. The...

<p><p>We evaluate the German apprenticeship system, which combines on-the-job training with classroom teaching, by modelling individual careers from the choice to join such a scheme and followed by their employment, job to job transitions and wages over the lifecycle. Our data is drawn from...</p></p>