Research

The wage gap between black and white Americans has narrowed between the 1960s and the 1970s, but its progress stalled since 1980. This study argues that routine biased technological change (RBTC) contributed to dampening wage gap convergence in 1980-2000, having a differential impact across races and along the wage distribution. Thus, I present new empirical evidence on occupational patterns by race and on determinants of wage disparities along the wage distribution, and rationalize them with an RBTC model in which firms engage in statistical discrimination. I show that, surprisingly, the share of employment in routine intensive occupations has increased for black workers, in contrast with a significant decrease observed for white workers. I decompose the wage gap changes using the Oaxaca-RIF methodology and show that differences in occupational sorting of the workforce increase wage disparities, thwarting wage convergence between races at the bottom of the wage distribution. Together, these new empirical findings and model provide insights to better understand the mechanisms behind racial disparities at the end of the 20th century.

We present a unified technological explanation of both the movement of workers across jobs using different skills and the changes in skill use within jobs. An envelope theorem approach allows us to estimate relative skill-productivity growth from worker mobility using OLS while making minimal assumptions on each occupation’s production function. Using six decades of data, we conclude that routine-cognitive- and finger-dexterity-skill productivity grew rapidly and abstract- and social-skill productivity grew slowly - a form of “skill bias.” These effects, along with our estimated relationships between skill inputs, also explain changes in skill use within occupations. 

How do firms respond to permanent changes in the legal status of a substantial group of migrants? We study the effects in the Italian labor market of the entry to the European Union of Bulgaria and Romania. This event was particularly relevant for Italy, where Romanians constitute approximately one fifth of the immigrant population. We use administrative employer-employee data on the universe of private-sector workers and an IV-DID design to identify the effects of this immigration on firms' personnel and performance. Firms exhibit an increase in the share of migrant workers at the expense of natives, not accompanied by a change in wage growth for either group. Migrant workers’ gains are shown in increased job mobility and job security. Despite growing in size, firms show a decrease in per capita business outputs. Our results indicate that the change in legal status led to a formalization of undocumented workers and had positive implications for the affected migrant workers.