Decomposing the Sources of Earnings Inequality: Assessing the Role of Reallocation

40 Pages Posted: 1 Jun 2006 Last revised: 27 Oct 2011

See all articles by Julia Lane

Julia Lane

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); Wagner Graduate School of Public Service

Fredrik Andersson

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)

Elizabeth E. Davis

University of Minnesota - Department of Applied Economics

Matthew Freedman

University of California, Irvine - Department of Economics

Brian P. McCall

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Carlson School of Management

Lee Kristin Sandusky

U.S. Census Bureau

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: October 27, 2011

Abstract

This paper exploits longitudinal employer-employee matched data from the U.S. Census Bureau to investigate the contribution of worker and firm reallocation to changes in earnings inequality within and across industries between 1992 and 2003. We find that factors that cannot be measured using standard cross-sectional data, including the entry and exit of firms and the sorting of workers across firms, are important sources of changes in earnings distributions over time. Our results also suggest that the dynamics driving changes in earnings inequality are heterogeneous across industries.

Keywords: matched employer-employee data, earnings inequality, job reallocation, worker reallocation, firm entry, firm exit

JEL Classification: J00, J63, J31

Suggested Citation

Lane, Julia and Lane, Julia and Andersson, Per Fredrik Daniel and Davis, Elizabeth E. and Freedman, Matthew and McCall, Brian P. and Sandusky, Lee Kristin, Decomposing the Sources of Earnings Inequality: Assessing the Role of Reallocation (October 27, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=905006 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.905006

Julia Lane

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.iza.org

Wagner Graduate School of Public Service ( email )

The Puck Building
295 Lafayette Street, Second Floor
New York, NY 10012
United States

Per Fredrik Daniel Andersson

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) ( email )

400 7th St. SW
Washington, DC 20219-0001
United States
202-649-5528 (Phone)
571-465-3246 (Fax)

Elizabeth E. Davis

University of Minnesota - Department of Applied Economics ( email )

1994 Buford Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108
United States

Matthew Freedman (Contact Author)

University of California, Irvine - Department of Economics ( email )

3151 Social Science Plaza
Irvine, CA 92697-5100
United States

Brian P. McCall

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Carlson School of Management ( email )

19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States

Lee Kristin Sandusky

U.S. Census Bureau ( email )

4600 Silver Hill Road
Washington, DC 20233
United States

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