Kiel Working Papers, Kiel Institute for World Economics
No 1588:
Wage Inequality and the Changing Organization of Work
Dennis Görlich and Dennis Snower
Abstract: This paper sheds light on how changes in the organization
of work lead to wage inequality. We present a theoretical model in which
workers with a wider span of competence (higher level of multitasking) earn
a wage premium. Since abilities and opportunities to expand the span of
competence are distributed unequally among workers across and within
education groups, our theory explains (1) rising wage inequality between
groups, (2) rising wage inequality within groups, and (3) the polarization
of work and the decoupling of the income distribution. Using a rich German
data set covering a 20-year period from 1986 to 2006, we provide empirical
support for our model
Keywords: wage inequality, multitasking, tasks, organizational change; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: J31,; J24,; L23; (follow links to similar papers)
40 pages, January 2010
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