Policymakers in many OECD countries are increasingly concerned about high and rising inequality. Much of the evidence (as far back as Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations) points to the importance of skills in tackling wage inequality. Yet a recent strand of the research argues that (cognitive)...

We revisit the relationship between cognitive skills and wage inequality and, contrary to most previous research, find that skills do play an important role in explaining differences in wage inequality between the United States and other OECD countries. We argue that previous research suffered...