Changing inequality in work injuries and work timing

Monthly Labor Review

Volumn 122, Issue 10, 1999, Pages 22-30

  Hamermesh, Daniel S ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

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EID: 0009067985     PISSN: 00981818     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (22)

1. This has been demonstrated by many authors, including Chinhui Juhn, Kevin M. Murphy, and Brooks Pierce, "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Returns to Skill," Journal of Political Economy, June 1993, pp. 410-42: and Sheldon Danziger and Peter Gottschalk, eds., Uneven Tides: Rising Inequality in America (New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1993).
2. This has been demonstrated by many authors, including Chinhui Juhn, Kevin M. Murphy, and Brooks Pierce, "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Returns to Skill," Journal of Political Economy, June 1993, pp. 410-42: and Sheldon Danziger and Peter Gottschalk, eds., Uneven Tides: Rising Inequality in America (New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1993).
3. Changes in the distribution of health and pension payments are reported on by Brooks Pierce, "Compensation Inequality," BLS Working Paper (Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 1998).
4. The theory behind the allocation of amenities and the premiums attached to disamenities is presented in Sherwin Rosen, "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets," Journal of Political Economy, January/February 1974, pp. 34-55. Such premiums have been demonstrated for the risk of death on the job by Richard Thaler and Sherwin Rosen, "The Value of Saving a Life: Evidence from the Labor Market," in Nestor Terleckyj, ed., Household Production and Consumption (New York, Columbia University Press, 1976); for injuries by, among others, Daniel Hamermesh and John Wolfe, "Compensating Wage Differentials and the Duration of Wage Loss," Journal of Labor Economics, pt. 2, January 1990, pp. S175-S197; and for evening and night work, by Peter Kostiuk, "Compensating Differentials for Shift Work," Journal of Political Economy, October 1990, pp. 1054-75.
5. The theory behind the allocation of amenities and the premiums attached to disamenities is presented in Sherwin Rosen, "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets," Journal of Political Economy, January/February 1974, pp. 34-55. Such premiums have been demonstrated for the risk of death on the job by Richard Thaler and Sherwin Rosen, "The Value of Saving a Life: Evidence from the Labor Market," in Nestor Terleckyj, ed., Household Production and Consumption (New York, Columbia University Press, 1976); for injuries by, among others, Daniel Hamermesh and John Wolfe, "Compensating Wage Differentials and the Duration of Wage Loss," Journal of Labor Economics, pt. 2, January 1990, pp. S175-S197; and for evening and night work, by Peter Kostiuk, "Compensating Differentials for Shift Work," Journal of Political Economy, October 1990, pp. 1054-75.
6. The theory behind the allocation of amenities and the premiums attached to disamenities is presented in Sherwin Rosen, "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets," Journal of Political Economy, January/February 1974, pp. 34-55. Such premiums have been demonstrated for the risk of death on the job by Richard Thaler and Sherwin Rosen, "The Value of Saving a Life: Evidence from the Labor Market," in Nestor Terleckyj, ed., Household Production and Consumption (New York, Columbia University Press, 1976); for injuries by, among others, Daniel Hamermesh and John Wolfe, "Compensating Wage Differentials and the Duration of Wage Loss," Journal of Labor Economics, pt. 2, January 1990, pp. S175-S197; and for evening and night work, by Peter Kostiuk, "Compensating Differentials for Shift Work," Journal of Political Economy, October 1990, pp. 1054-75.
7. The theory behind the allocation of amenities and the premiums attached to disamenities is presented in Sherwin Rosen, "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets," Journal of Political Economy, January/February 1974, pp. 34-55. Such premiums have been demonstrated for the risk of death on the job by Richard Thaler and Sherwin Rosen, "The Value of Saving a Life: Evidence from the Labor Market," in Nestor Terleckyj, ed., Household Production and Consumption (New York, Columbia University Press, 1976); for injuries by, among others, Daniel Hamermesh and John Wolfe, "Compensating Wage Differentials and the Duration of Wage Loss," Journal of Labor Economics, pt. 2, January 1990, pp. S175-S197; and for evening and night work, by Peter Kostiuk, "Compensating Differentials for Shift Work," Journal of Political Economy, October 1990, pp. 1054-75.
8. I present the economic theory underlying these arguments in my study, "Changing Inequality in Markets for Workplace Amenities," Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1999, pp. 1085-124. That study also includes other applications and demonstrates how the secular changes can be used to infer structural parameters.
9. The Current Population Survey is a monthly survey of approximately 50,000 households selected to represent the U.S. population aged 16 and older. It is conducted by the Bureau of the Census under contract to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
10. From 1985 on the initial and final clauses in the question were reversed.
11. Earl Mellor, "Shift Work and Flexible Time: How Prevalent Are They?" Monthly Labor Review, November 1986, pp. 14-21.
12. See Daniel Hamermesh, Workdays, Workhours and Work Schedules. (Kalamazoo, MI, W.E. Upjohn Institute, 1996), table 3.1U.
13. Earnings data in the CPS are top-coded, that is, earnings above a specified level are reported only as being at or above that level (for example, "$75,000 or more per year"). For purposes of this study, I multiply top-coded earnings by 1.5, as is common in this literature.
14. All the calculations in this section also were made comparing workers in the top and bottom deciles. The conclusions are qualitatively identical to those in the text.
15. Evidence on the relative increase in high-skilled workers' labor supply during this period of rising earnings inequality is provided by Chinhui Juhn, Kevin M. Murphy, and Robert Topel, "Why Has the Natural Rate of Unemployment Increased over Time?" Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, fall 1991, pp. 75-142.
16. Daniel Hamermesh, "The Timing of Work over Time," Economic Journal, January 1999, figure 8, presents charts like this comparing 1991 and 1973.
17. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Report on the American Workforce, 1994. (Washington, U.S. Department of Labor, 1994).
18. This new panel is available from the author upon request.
19. We do know from Linda Bell and Richard Freeman, "The Causes of Rising Interindustry Wage Dispersion in the United States," Industrial and Labor Relations Review , January 1991, pp. 275-87, that earnings inequality across industries was rising from 1979 to 1987.
20. Finis Welch, "Industrial Change and the Demand for Skill," Unpublished paper (Texas A&M University, March 1999), figure 1.
21. A final concern is that charts 4 through 6 treat each industry identically, even though the industries may differ greatly in size. To examine whether this treatment affects the findings, I redefine the earnings quartiles by arraying industries by average weekly earnings from bottom to top, and then including in the bottom quartile the lowest-paying industries accounting for 25 percent of total employment, in the third quartile the next set of industries accounting for 25 percent of employment, and so forth. Recalculations based on this redefinition do not change the conclusions: the charts look very similar to those presented here.
22. For example, see Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Employment Outlook, July 1996 (Paris, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1996), ch. 3.