This paper provides a novel analysis of the trend in income inequality in the United States between 1979-2013. There are two ways in which this paper contributes to the literature. First, I analyze how much of the existing inequality in the U.S. is due to the demographic changes that happened...

Lupu and Pontusson (2011) argue that the structure of income inequality, rather than its level, can explain differences in fiscal redistribution across modern welfare states. Contrary to the assertion that there is robust evidence in support of this proposition, the present paper challenges the...

This paper investigates the importance of heterogeneity in the labor earning shock processes. We analyze the earning shock process for both male and female workers in several countries. We argue that unlike time series analysis, in a life cycle model the forecasting horizon is finite and in...

Comparative sociologists have long considered occupations to be a key source of inequality. However, data constraints make comparative research on two of the more important contemporary drivers of occupational stratification - globalization and technological change - relatively scarce. This...

Prior studies on emerging economies contend increasing returns to human capital has contributed to the growth of wage inequality over the last few decades. However, this explanation fails to account for an important dynamic of contemporary wage inequality: the growth of top labor incomes....

With the current economic transformation, the widening gap between income and the accumulation of wealth becomes an important area of study. This study reviews wage differentials and a number of economic theories regarding wage determination and labor market incentives. To analyze the wage...

Current studies addressing the rise in inequality confine themselves to country-level developments. This paper delineates trends in earnings inequality and employment at the sectoral level for eight LIS countries between 1985-2005. Earnings inequality mainly manifests itself within rather than...

The paper aims to encompass evidence on wage distribution and inequality with micro-mobility measures for several countries in the 2000s, by applying pseudo-panel methodology to microdata from the LIS database. Hence, different paths in term of wage growth or stagnation, increasing or declining...

The recent debate on trends in inequality in industrial countries has been marred by the lack of consensus about the relevant concept of inequality. Labour economists are concerned with inequality in earnings, macroeconomists with movements in the wage share, while policy-makers tend to focus on...

Prior country case studies show substantial wage premiums in the financial sector contributes to growth of top incomes and wage inequality in a select group of advanced economies. However, while comparative studies show financialization exerts heterogenous effects on wage inequality across...