An Appraisal of Economic Research on Changes in Wage Inequality

Abstract:     
In this paper (based on my invited lecture to the 2007 Association of Italian Labour Economists) I offer an appraisal of the large economic literature on changes in wage inequality. I describe the origins of the recent work, the sizable body of research trying to understand national and international differences, and discuss the directions in which more recent work has moved. The paper concludes with the observation that, for a number of reasons, research that tries to better understand changing patterns of wage inequality (especially in a cross-country context) is likely to remain high on the research agenda of empirical labour economists.

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