Changes in the Distribution of Wages, 1940-1950: The Public vs. the Private Sector / Robert A. Margo, T. Aldrich Finegan.

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Margo, Robert A

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Material type: Text

TextSeries: Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w5389.Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1995.Description: 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white)Subject(s):

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Abstract: Between 1940 and 1950 wage differentials within and between labor market groups narrowed significantly - the so-called 'Great Compression'. This paper disaggregates the Great Compression into its public and private components. Wage compression in the public sector, along with a decline in the pay premia received by public sector workers, explains about 40 percent of aggregate wage compression in the 1940s. The experience of the 1940s stands in stark contrast with that of the past two decades, in which a rigid public sector wage structure has dampened increases in aggregate wage inequality.

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Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Working Paper	Biblioteca Digital	Colección NBER	nber w5389 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Not For Loan

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December 1995.

Between 1940 and 1950 wage differentials within and between labor market groups narrowed significantly - the so-called 'Great Compression'. This paper disaggregates the Great Compression into its public and private components. Wage compression in the public sector, along with a decline in the pay premia received by public sector workers, explains about 40 percent of aggregate wage compression in the 1940s. The experience of the 1940s stands in stark contrast with that of the past two decades, in which a rigid public sector wage structure has dampened increases in aggregate wage inequality.