This section provides
links to abstracts of articles appearing in 1996 issues
of the New England Economic Review. Issues are
in reverse chronological order; articles are in the
order they appear in the Review.
|
May/June |
Complete Issue |
Earnings
Inequality: Proceedings of a Symposium
Although the increase in earnings inequality in the
1980s and 1990s has been well documented, its causes
are still being studied and debated. Some explanations
revolve around changes in job skills, job requirements,
and labor market institutions. Other explanations focus
on the deteriorating quality of many urban neighborhoods
and the increasing economic isolation of their residents.
A symposium at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on
November 17, 1995, brought together experts from labor
and urban economics to address the extent to which changes
in labor markets and location have contributed to rising
inequality. Participants also discussed the effectiveness
of policies that may help overcome the problem. |
|
Spatial
and Labor Market Contributions to Earnings Inequality:
An Overview
Katharine
L. Bradbury, Yolanda
K. Kodrzycki, and Christopher J. Mayer |
Full Text |
| |
|
Summary
of Issues and Current Knowledge
The papers in this session summarize recent research
on how labor markets and location contribute to
earnings inequality, in order to provide a context
for the papers to follow.
|
|
Labor Markets and
Earnings Inequality: A Status Report
Yolanda
K. Kodrzycki |
Full Text |
Does Location Matter?
Christopher J. Mayer |
Full Text |
| |
|
The
Role of Neighborhood and Job Location in Employment/
Hiring and Earnings
How important are neighborhood externalities, physical
access to jobs, race, and the concentration of poverty
in explaining the severe problems in many urban neighborhoods?
What is the relative importance of each of these factors?
What policies might help? |
|
Spatial Effects
upon Employment Outcomes: The Case of New Jersey
Teenagers
Katherine M. O'Regan and John
M. Quigley
Discussion : Edward L. Glaeser |
Full Text |
Spatial Factors
and the Employment of Blacks at the Firm Level
Harry J. Holzer and Keith R. Ihlanfeldt
Discussion: James E. Rosenbaum
|
Full Text |
| |
|
The
Role of Schools and the Changing Quality of Labor
in Earnings Inequality
To what extent do students have equal access to educational
opportunity? Are their educational choices responsive
to the relative earnings for different types of jobs?
Is inequality likely to increase or decrease in the
future, given the current system of primary, secondary,
and higher education? |
|
Equality of Educational
Opportunity Revisited
John F. Kain and Kraig
Singleton
Discussion: Eric A. Hanushek |
Full Text |
Is the Market for
College Graduates Headed for a Bust? Demand and
Supply Responses to Rising College Wage Premiums
John H. Bishop
Discussion: Richard J. Murnane
|
Full Text |
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|
The
Role of Organizational Change and Labor Market Institutions
in Earnings Inequality
What are the characteristics of technology or work organization that are contributing to changes in skill requirements and relative earnings? To what extent has the decline of institutions such as collective bargaining and the minimum wage contributed to rising inequality? What scope is there for the United States to develop institutions and work environments to reduce inequality? |
|
Technology and Skill
Requirements: Implications for Establishment Wage
Structures
Peter Cappelli
Discussion: John Bound |
Full Text |
Labor Market Institutions
and Earnings Inequality
Richard B. Freeman
Discussion: Peter Gottschalk
|
Full Text |
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Panel
Discussion on Policy Implications
What have we learned from the papers presented at this
Symposium? What are the implications of rising earnings
inequality for economic growth? What are the appropriate
roles (if any) of employers and federal, state, and
local governments in addressing the problems posed by
earnings inequality? To what extent are small-scale
socioeconomic experiments generalizable? How urgent
is the problem and what are the prospects for action?
Anita A.
Summers, Moderator; Ann B. Schnare, Frank Levy,
and Lawrence F. Katz
|
Full Text |
