TY - CHAP
T1 - Skills, Computerization and Income Inequality in the Postwar U.S. Economy
AU - Wolff, Edward N.
N1 - Funding Information:
1. Gini coefficient for family income . U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, March Supplement, the Internet [ http://www.census.gov/ftp/pub/hhes/www/incpov.htm1 ]. 2. Educational attainment. Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports , available on the Internet. Adults refer to persons of age 25 and over in the non-institutional population (excluding members of the Armed Forces living in Barracks). The CPS data are provided on the Internet. 3. Output, investment and capital stock data . (a) Investment data refer to non-residential fixed investment in constant (1992) dollars and GDP to GDP in constant (1992) dollars. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts, Internet. (b) Capital stock figures are based on chain-type quantity indexes for net stock of fixed capital in 1992$ year-end estimates. Equipment and structures, including information technology equipment, are for the private (non-government) sector only. Information processing and related equipment includes: (i) computers and peripheral equipment; (ii) other office and accounting machinery; (iii) communication equipment; (iv) instruments; and (v) photocopy and related equipment. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, CD-ROM NCN-0229, “Fixed Reproducible Tangible Wealth of the United States, 192597.” For technical details, see Katz and Herman (1997) . (c) Investment flows by industry and by type of equipment or structures are for the private (non-government) sector only. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, CD-ROM NCN-0229, “Fixed Reproducible Tangible Wealth of the United States, 1925–1997.” 4. Research and development expenditures performed by industry include company, federal, and other sources of funds . Company-financed R&D performed outside the company is excluded. Industry series on R&D and full-time equivalent scientists and engineers engaged in R&D per full-time equivalent employee run from 1957 to 1997. Source: National Science Foundation, Internet. For technical details, see National Science Foundation, Research and Development in Industry , (Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation), NSF96–304, 1996. 5. Unionization . Percent of labor force covered by unions. Estimates for 1950–1983 are the annual average number of dues paying members reported by labor unions. Estimates for 1983–1997 are annual averages from the Current Population Survey. Data exclude numbers of professional and public employee associations. Sources: (a) U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Handbook of Labor Statistics 1978 , Bulletin 2 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office), 1979; (b) U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Handbook of Labor Statistics 1989 , Bulletin 23, (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office), 1990; and (c) Eva E. Jacobs, Editor, Handbook of U.S. Labor Statistics , Second Edition (Lanham, MD: Bernan Press), 1998. Sources for the industry-level data include in addition to the above: Kokkelenberg and Sockell (1985) ; Hirsch and Macpherson (1993) , accompanying data files; and Bureau of Labor Statistics, Office of Employment Projections, Output and Employment database. 6. Minimum wage. Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1998 , 118th Edition (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office), 1998. 7. Property income and personal income: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts , Internet ( http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/nipaweb/index.asp ). 8. Number of female householders and total number of families: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey , March Supplement, the Internet ( http://www.census.gov/ftp/pub/hhes/www/incpov.htm1 ).
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - Inequality in the distribution of family income in the U.S., which had remained virtually unchanged since the end of World War II until 1968, has increased sharply since then. In contrast, schooling and skill inequality has declined rather steadily over the postwar period. Another notable change over the past 30 years or so has been the widespread diffusion of computers. Using aggregate time-series data for the 1947-2000 period, I find that the largest effects on inequality come from office, computing and accounting equipment (OCA) investment, which accounted for about half of the rise in inequality between 1968 and 2000. The unionization rate is second in importance, and its decline over this period explains about 40 percent of the increase in inequality. The decline in the dispersion of schooling, on the other hand, plays almost no role in explaining the rise in inequality. On the basis of pooled time series, industry regressions for the 1970-2000 period, I also find that investment in OCA is positively related to changes in skill inequality, while changes in the unionization rate are negatively related.
AB - Inequality in the distribution of family income in the U.S., which had remained virtually unchanged since the end of World War II until 1968, has increased sharply since then. In contrast, schooling and skill inequality has declined rather steadily over the postwar period. Another notable change over the past 30 years or so has been the widespread diffusion of computers. Using aggregate time-series data for the 1947-2000 period, I find that the largest effects on inequality come from office, computing and accounting equipment (OCA) investment, which accounted for about half of the rise in inequality between 1968 and 2000. The unionization rate is second in importance, and its decline over this period explains about 40 percent of the increase in inequality. The decline in the dispersion of schooling, on the other hand, plays almost no role in explaining the rise in inequality. On the basis of pooled time series, industry regressions for the 1970-2000 period, I also find that investment in OCA is positively related to changes in skill inequality, while changes in the unionization rate are negatively related.
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U2 - 10.1016/S1049-2585(06)13009-4
DO - 10.1016/S1049-2585(06)13009-4
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:33646541996
SN - 0762313501
SN - 9780762313501
T3 - Research on Economic Inequality
SP - 251
EP - 295
BT - Dynamics of Inequality and Poverty
A2 - Creedy, John
A2 - Kalb, Guyonne
ER -