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Theory-Driven Facts and the Growth in Earnings Inequality

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  • David R. Howell

    (Robert J. Milano Graduate School, New School for Social Research, 665th Ave., 8th Fl., New York, NY 10011, howell@newschool.edu)

Abstract

It is widely accepted that the rise in U.S. wage inequality can be explained by skill-biased technological change: workplace computerization produced demand shifts that worked with a simply supply and demand "vision" of the labor market than with direct statistical evidence, which is remarkably limited. Indeed, the dominance of this elementary textbook vision has led, I argue, to a conflation between statistical facts and "theory-driven" facts-those statements about reality that are selected, interpreted, or simply created to confirm a vision of the way things work. The paper concludes by outlining an alternative explanation of the growth in wage inequality based on a sharply different, Gordonian, vision of the labor market.

Suggested Citation

  • David R. Howell, 1999. "Theory-Driven Facts and the Growth in Earnings Inequality," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 31(1), pages 54-86, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:31:y:1999:i:1:p:54-86
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    Cited by:

    1. Oren M. Levin-Waldman, 2017. "Is Inequality Designed or Preordained?," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(2), pages 21582440177, April.
    2. Francesco Bogliacino & Dario Guarascio & Valeria Cirillo, 2015. "Where Does the Surplus Go? Disentangling the Capital-Labor Distributive Conflict," Documentos de Trabajo, Escuela de Economía 13535, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID.
    3. repec:aia:ginidp:dp26 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Francesco Bogliacino & Dario Guarascio & Valeria Cirillo, 2018. "The dynamics of profits and wages: technology, offshoring and demand," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(8), pages 778-808, September.
    5. Sean E. Mulholland, 2019. "Stratification by regulation: Are bootleggers and Baptists biased?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 105-130, July.
    6. Peter Skott, 2011. "Heterodox macro after the crisis," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2011-23, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    7. Slonimczyk, Fabián & Skott, Peter, 2012. "Employment and distribution effects of the minimum wage," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 245-264.
    8. Robert Pollin, 2000. "Globalization, Inequality and Financial Instability: Confronting the Marx, Keynes and Polanyi Problems in the Advanced Capitalist Economies," Working Papers wp8, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    9. Robert Pollin, 2002. "Globalization and the Transition to Egalitarian Development," Working Papers wp42, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    10. Francesco Bogliacino & Lucchese, M., 2011. "GINI DP 26: Endogenous Skill Biased Technical Change: Testing for Demand Pull Effect," GINI Discussion Papers 26, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    11. Levin-Waldman, Oren M., 2008. "Characteristics of cities that pass living wage ordinances: Are certain conditions more conducive than others?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2201-2213, December.

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