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Small Employers, Large Employers and the Skill Premium

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  • Damir Stijepic

    (Johannes Gutenberg University)

Abstract

I document the comovement of the skill premium with the differential employer size wage premium between high- and low-skill workers in U.S. manufacturing during the postwar era. For the baseline specification, i.e., establishments with at least 500 employees categorized as large employers and non-production workers as high-skilled, I obtain a correlation coefficient of 0.87. Exploiting variations across subindustries while controlling for other potentially relevant factors, I estimate that an increase by ten log-points in the differential size premium is associated with an increase in the skill premium by three log-points.

Suggested Citation

  • Damir Stijepic, 2016. "Small Employers, Large Employers and the Skill Premium," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(1), pages 381-387.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-15-00693
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    6. Daron Acemoglu, 2003. "Patterns of Skill Premia," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 199-230.
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    8. Timothy Dunne & Lucia Foster & John Haltiwanger & Kenneth R. Troske, 2004. "Wage and Productivity Dispersion in United States Manufacturing: The Role of Computer Investment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(2), pages 397-430, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Stijepic, Damir, 2021. "A cross-country study of skills and unemployment flows," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 55, pages 1-9.
    2. Stijepic Damir, 2022. "Workplace Heterogeneity and the Returns to Versatility," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 22(2), pages 483-508, June.
    3. Damir Stijepic, 2017. "Globalization, Worker Mobility and Wage Inequality," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 108-131, February.
    4. Stijepic Damir, 2020. "Job Mobility and Sorting: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 240(1), pages 19-49, February.
    5. Damir Stijepic, 2021. "Trends and cycles in U.S. job mobility," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 89(2), pages 203-222, March.
    6. Damir Stijepic, 2019. "The impact of the productivity dispersion across employers on the labor's income share," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(1), pages 73-83.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    skill premium; employer size wage premium; differential employer size wage premium between skill groups; wage inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education

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