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Author: Boehm, Michael J.
Resulting in 3 citations.
1. Boehm, Michael J.
Has Job Polarization Squeezed the Middle Class? Evidence from the Allocation of Talents
Discussion Paper No. 1215, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and Political Science, May 2013
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY97
Publisher: Centre for Economic Policy Research, London
Keyword(s): Earnings; Job Skills; Occupations; Wage Differentials

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Over the last two decades, earnings in the United States increased at the top and at the bottom of the wage distribution but not in the middle - the intensely debated middle class squeeze. At the same time there was a substantial decline of employment in middle-skill production and clerical occupations - so-called job polarization. I study whether job polarization has caused the middle class squeeze. So far little evidence exists about this because the endogenous selection of skills into occupations prevents credible identification of polarization’s effect on wages. I solve the selection-bias problem by studying the changes in returns to occupation-specific skills instead of the changes in occupational wages using data over the two cohorts of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY). This data features multidimensional and pre-determined test scores, which predict occupational sorting and thus measure relative occupation-specific skills. My estimation equations are derived from the Roy (1951) model over two cross-sections with job polarization amounting to a shift in the occupationspecific skill prices. In line with polarization, I find that a one percentage point higher propensity to enter high- (low-) as opposed to middle-skill occupations is associated with a .29 (.70) percent increase in expected wages over time. I then compute a counterfactual wage distribution using my estimates of the shifts in occupation-specific skill prices and show that it matches the increase at the top of the wage distribution but fails to explain the increase at the bottom. Thus, despite the strong association of job polarization with changes in the returns to occupation-specific skills, there remains room for alternative (e.g. policy related) explanations about the increase in the lower part of the wage distribution.
Bibliography Citation
Boehm, Michael J. "Has Job Polarization Squeezed the Middle Class? Evidence from the Allocation of Talents." Discussion Paper No. 1215, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and Political Science, May 2013.
2. Boehm, Michael J.
Job Polarisation and the Decline of Middle-class Workers’ Wages
Column, VoxEU.org, Centre for Economic Policy Research, February 8, 2014.
Also: http://www.voxeu.org/article/job-polarisation-and-decline-middle-class-workers-wages
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY97
Publisher: Centre for Economic Policy Research, London
Keyword(s): Earnings; Job Patterns; Job Skills; Occupations; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Wage Differentials

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Employment in traditional middle-class jobs has fallen sharply over the last few decades. At the same time, middle-class wages have been stagnant. This column reviews recent research on job polarisation and presents a new study that explicitly links job polarisation with the changes in workers' wages. Job polarisation has a substantial negative effect on middle-skill workers.
Bibliography Citation
Boehm, Michael J. "Job Polarisation and the Decline of Middle-class Workers’ Wages." Column, VoxEU.org, Centre for Economic Policy Research, February 8, 2014.
3. Boehm, Michael J.
The Wage Effects of Job Polarization: Evidence from the Allocation of Talents
Working Paper, University of Bonn and London Centre for Economic Performance, April 2014.
Also: http://www.econ.uzh.ch/eiit/Events/sinergiaconference2014/abstractsandpapers2014/Boehm_Michael_The_Wage_Effects_of_Job_Polarizations.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY97
Publisher: Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics & Political Science
Keyword(s): Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Earnings; Job Patterns; Job Skills; Occupational Choice; Occupations; Wage Differentials

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This article studies the wage effects of job polarization on 27 year old male workers from the cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Guided by a Roy model of occupational choice I compare workers who have characteristics that put them into high-, middle-, and low-skill occupations over the two cohorts. Results indicate that the relative wages of middle-skill occupation workers have dropped. The effect of job polarization on the overall wage distribution that is implied by the model explains the increase at the top of the actual distribution but it has difficulty matching the increase at the bottom.
Bibliography Citation
Boehm, Michael J. "The Wage Effects of Job Polarization: Evidence from the Allocation of Talents." Working Paper, University of Bonn and London Centre for Economic Performance, April 2014.