Jared Bernstein

Seven Reasons for Skepticism about the Technology Story of U.S. Wage Inequality

One of the most important economic developments over the past few decades has been the persistent increase in the inequality of economic outcomes. Though its rise has slowed over the past few years, family income inequality—the gap between the income of families at the bottom, middle, and top of the income distribution—was much greater in the late 1990s than at any other time in post-World War II America. Naturally, inquiring minds have turned to economists for an explanation of this expansion of inequality. Since labor earnings comprise the bulk of most families’ incomes, analysts have examined the causes of rising wage dispersion to understand what is driving inequality’s inexorable climb since the late 1970s.

Want to Attack Inequality? Reduce Unemployment!

Full employment is the main goal, say these two noted public policy economists. Whats more, lets put aside excuses. We can get there.

The US Model: The Wages of Inequality

Mass unemployment has become the central economic and social problem facing most European nations in the 1900s. The rise in joblessness is all the more frustrating because it follows a decade of already elevated unemployment rates. Meanwhile, the United States has an unemployment rate in the mid-1990s that is, if anything, slightly lower than rates that prevailed in the 1970s.