Using a data-set of OECD countries from 1980 to 2004, we assess the cross-country evidence on the trade-off between wage inequality and employment performance by relying on Data Envelopment Analysis, a nonparametric technique usually employed in the analysis of productive efficiency. DEA allows...

In this paper we assess the evolution of employment and wage inequality in Europe and the US labour markets over the past two decades. We find that the salient trends in wage structures are more complicated than implied by the so-called “unified theory.” Furthermore there is no clear...