Autore
Garcia Cervero, Susana

Titolo
A historical approach to american skill differentials
Periodico
European University Institute of Badia Fiesolana (Fi). Department of Economics - Working papers
Anno: 1997 - Fascicolo: 25 - Pagina iniziale: 1 - Pagina finale: 50

This paper studies the evolution of three historical time series on skill premiums in the United States during the major part of both the 19th and the 20th century. A descriptive analysis leads us to asses the existence of a systematic relation between the series and the inflation rate, pointing towards the presence of a strong rigidity in the wages of skilled workers. We proceed by discriminating the real forces that may cause such pattern, considering four of such forces: aggregate demand, supply shocks caused by wars, technological progress biased towards skilled workers and capital skill complementarity. The results, robust both to an extension in the number of regressors and to a change in the sample period, suggest the existence of nominal forces causing the observed rigidity. This is a striking outcome difficult to insert within the literature on skill premiums.



Testo completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/634

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