Investment in technology increased rapidly in the United States during the past two decades, leading some to herald the birth of a "new economy." This new economy, marked by rapid productivity growth, rising incomes, low unemployment, and moderate inflation, creates a "rising tide that lifts all...

A standard object of empirical analysis in labor economics is a modified Mincer wage function in which an individual's log wage is specified to be a function of education, experience, and an indicator variable identifying race. Researchers hope that estimates from this exercise can be...

The trend toward increasing U.S. wage inequality during the 1980s is well documented. I investigate the role of employment shifts from goods-producing to service-producing industries in contributing to increased inequality during the period 1979-1995. Earlier analyses revealed that average...

Speech to the Center for the Study of Democracy 2006-2007 Economics of Governance Lecture, University of California, Irvine, November 6, 2006>

a speech before the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, Omaha, Nebraska

Changes in the fraction of workers experiencing job separations can account for most of the increase in earnings dispersion that occurred both between, as well as within educational groups in the United States from the mid-1970s to the mid- 1980s. This is not true of changes in average earnings...

Speech to the Center for the Study of Democracy 2006-2007 Economics of Governance Lecture, University of California, Irvine, November 6, 2006>