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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. 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.
    4. Peter Skott, 2011. "Heterodox macro after the crisis," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2011-23, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. repec:aia:ginidp:dp26 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Sean E. Mulholland, 2019. "Stratification by regulation: Are bootleggers and Baptists biased?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 105-130, July.
    9. 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.
    10. Robert Pollin, 2002. "Globalization and the Transition to Egalitarian Development," Working Papers wp42, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    11. 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.

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