<DIV>Despite the economic boom of the 1990s, the gap between the wealthy and the poor in the United States is growing larger. While ample evidence exists to validate perceived trends in wage, income, and overall wealth disparity, there is little agreement on the causes of such inequality and what...</div>

Although surveys show that traditional ordering of average wages--i.e. higher earnings with higher schooling and concave age-wage profiles--have not changed during the past three decades, the actual size of the wage differentials measured by education or by work experience has varied from peak...

Kevin M. Murphy is the winner of the 1998 John Bates Clark Medal, presented by the American Economic Association every second year to an outstanding economist under the age of forty who is selected for special recognition. He is the George Pratt Schultz Professor of Business Economics and...