Rising Wage Inequality: The 1980s Experience in Urban Labor Markets Thomas Hyclak First Chapter | Table of Contents 237 pp. 2000 $40.00 cloth 978-0-88099-208-4 $14.00 paper 978-0-88099-207-7 A "Noteworthy Book in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics," 2000, Industrial Relations Section – Princeton University Hyclak examines changes in the structure of wages paid for some 40 different jobs found in four different occupational groups. In addition, Hyclak concentrates on jobs and the skills required as the primary determinant of wages, an approach, he says, that complements the more traditional human capital wage model that emphasizes the personal characteristics of workers. "The major merit of this book lies in the author's disaggregative approach, his careful construction of explanatory variables (e.g., his use of real, rather than nominal, wage rates), and his exploration of a variety of nonwage benefits and the payoffs to a variety of skill measures. Although his result showing parallelism between local and national labor markets may relieve the conscience of those focusing on the national level, such a cross-sectional approach allows exploration of a number of different causal variables than in other labor market studies." –Southern Economic Journal |