Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/94283 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2000
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 1998-34
Publisher: 
Rutgers University, Department of Economics, New Brunswick, NJ
Abstract: 
This paper studies the level and the causes of earnings inequality in late nineteenth century America and Britain using microdata from the United States Commissioner of Labor Survey in 1890 and 1891. We examine whether lessons from studies on changes in earnings inequality over time -- the importance of skill, especially the skill wage premium, in explaining the changes -- can be applied to explaining why America had greater earnings inequality relative to Britain in the late nineteenth century. Using Fields' decomposition methodology, we find that the skill factor is important, albeit not the most important. According to shift share analysis, the differences in earnings inequality between the two countries can be explained mainly by the greater inequality within each skill group.
Subjects: 
earnings inequality
Fields' decomposition of inequality
late nineteenth century America and Britain
shift share analysis
JEL: 
D30
N31
N33
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
200.77 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.