Inequality of opportunity in the land of opportunities : 1968-2001

We measure inequality of opportunity for earnings acquisition in the U.S. between 1968 and 2001. Following recent theories of social justice, earnings determinants are divided into two parts: Circumstances, which are characteristics outside individual control and effort representing factors impacting earnings but under individuals’ responsibility. Equality of opportunity requires that inequality of circumstances must be corrected while differences of effort must remain unaltered. Circumstances are represented by parental education and occupation, ethnic origin, place of birth and age. Effort is modeled with schooling choices and labour supply decisions. Using the PSID from 1968 to 2001, we provide two alternative assessments of inequality of opportunity using counterfactual distributions. The statistical framework is semi-parametric and builds on duration models. Finally, we conclude that inequality of opportunity represents between 20 and 43% of earnings inequality, but decreases all over the period reaching around 18% in 2001

Make yourselves scarce: The effect of demographic change on the relative wages and employment rates of experienced workers

This paper studies the impact of demographic change on experienced workers’ relative wages and employment rates. We investigate empirical predictions from aframework of supply and demand for experience skill, using variation across U.S. local labor markets (LLMs) over the last decades and instrumenting experienceskill supply by the LLMs’ age structures a decade earlier. We find that aging substantially reduces experienced workers’ relative wages and full-time employmentrates, and also their labor market participation rates. Our results imply that the effect of demographic change on labor markets might be more severe than previously recognized, as it reaches beyond wages

Die Erfassung von Job-Tasks in persönlichen Befragungen. Ein neues Instrument zur Erhebung von Anforderungen am Arbeitsplatz

The analysis of job tasks has become a field of growing scientific activity in recent years. Information on such tasks has been used to analyze various research questions, especially regarding changes in the overall structure of the economy and their implications for persons and firms. Arguably the most prominent of these research questions is the analysis of the consequences of technological change for job tasks, skill demand, and wage inequality. Despite the growing importance of this field of research, the range of actual task measures to be used in empirical analyses is rather limited. Therefore, we considered it worthwhile to develop a survey instrument to measure job tasks by asking the job holders directly. The resulting questionnaire module was administered in the fourth panel wave of the German National Educational Panel Study's (NEPS) adult stage. In this paper, we provide an overview of our conceptual background as well as the steps taken during the development of the survey instrument. Furthermore, we present an initial exploratory analysis of the data collected to validate the instrument

Between- and within-group wage inequalities, and the advent of new technology

Between-group inequality, Within-group inequality, Occupational choice, D31, E20, J31,

Wandel der Tätigkeiten am Arbeitsplatz in Deutschland – Analysen von Skill und Task-Maßen

The task approach is attracting increasing attention and recognition among scholars in economics, sociology and related fields. However, measurement still presents an important challenge to the task approach. This paper studies the comparability of task measures in the commonly used German BIBB/IAB-BIBB/BAuA employment cross-sections on qualification and working conditions from 1979, 1985/86, 1991/92, 1998/99, and 2006. We hypothesize that findings on task-biased technological change are sensitive to variable choice. The task data differ substantially from other task data, and task items are not readily comparable between survey years. As a result, classifying single task items into distinct domains leads to a number of problems. To test our hypothesis, we use different strategies for classifying tasks into task domains, and analyze whether different operationalizations lead to different conclusions about task change in Germany. Our results show that this indeed is the case. Our paper provides readers with a broader understanding of German task data and gives recommendations for applying the task approach to German employment data

Networks to Nerdistan: The Role of Labor Market Intermediaries in the Entry-level IT Labor Market

Although networks have long governed economic relations, they assume even more importance in a knowledge-based economy. Yet, some argue that because of the lack of social networks and human capital, some groups are permanently 'switched off' the networks of the global economy. Evidence presented in this article suggests that instead there is latent potential for access to the network, due to the rise of networked community-based organizations and the increasing accessibility of technology. Based on surveys and in-depth interviews with almost 700 workers and training providers, I show how the switched off are entering jobs in information technology through network ties and the acquisition of soft skills, or communication and interaction skills. Although community-based training providers are best positioned to help disadvantaged jobseekers enter the network society, changes in the US workforce development system are reinforcing network exclusivity, rather than facilitating this upward mobility. Copyright (c) 2006 The Author. Journal Compilation (c) 2006 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.