What factors could explain why wage inequality in the United States has been increasing over the last several decades?

What will be an ideal response?


While there are many factors that contribute to the rise in wage inequality, technological change is the key trend that has increased the wedge between high and low-earning workers. The primary technological change over this time period has been advances in computing power. This change appears to have been broadly skill-biased, improving the marginal productivity of skilled workers and causing the demand for their labor and pay to increase. It has also replaced many tasks performed by unskilled labor, thereby decreasing the demand for such workers and lowering their wages. The skill-biased nature of recent technological changes is one of the reasons why United States wage inequality has increased dramatically over the last several decades.

Economics

You might also like to view...

The analysis of how a customer's tastes for cars will change when his wealth triples is under the scope of:

A) ordinal study. B) comparative statics. C) marginal research. D) Pareto analysis.

Economics

In the above figure, to achieve the efficient amount of paper production, the government could impose a tax of

A) $2 per ton. B) $8 per ton. C) $26 per ton. D) zero, because the efficient amount is produced with no government intervention.

Economics

The long-run Phillips curve suggests that changing the rate of unemployment in the economy has no impact on the inflation rate

a. True b. False Indicate whether the statement is true or false

Economics

Which of the following exemplifies specific performance that a court might order from the party in breach of a contract?

a. A seller ordered to pay back the price of the commodity to the customer having failed to deliver it on-time. b. A popular singer requested to forgo the fee for her performance at a social fund raising program. c. The owner of a polluting factory ordered to convert his private plot into a public garden. d. A movie director ordered to work with an actress he had previously contracted with, instead of one he later found was available for a lower price.

Economics