It is well known that earnings inequality has trended up more rapidly in the United States than in continental Europe during the past 25 years. These cross-national differences in outcomes are typically attributed to cross-national differences in labor market institutions. But this characterization hides important theoretical disagreements concerning the role of technical forces, institutional change, and the interaction between technical and institutional factors in producing the observed trends. A brief review of the literature clarifies the major issues in the debate and frames the contributions of the articles in this special issue on European labor markets.
Alderson, A. S., & Nielsen, F. (2002). Globalization and the great u-turn: Income inequality trends in 16 OECD countries. American Journal of Sociology, 107, 1244-1299.
2.
Atkinson, A. (2003). Income and inequality in OECD Countries: Data and explanation (CESIfo Working Paper No. 881). Munich, Germany: University of Munich.
3.
Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. (1996). Institutional differences in male wage inequality: Institutions versus market forces. Journal of Political Economy, 104, 791-837.
4.
Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. (1999). Institutions and laws in the labor market. In O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (Eds.), Handbook of labor economics (Vol. 3A, pp. 1399-1461). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
5.
Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. (2002). At home and abroad: U.S. labor market performance in international perspective. New York: Russell Sage.
6.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2004). Usual weekly earnings of wage and salary workers: Fourth quarter 2003 (Report No. USDL 04-46). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor.
7.
Card, D., & DiNardo, J. E. (2002). Skill-biased technological change and rising wage inequality: Some problems and puzzles. Journal of Labor Economics, 20, 733-783.
8.
Card, D. (2001). The effect of unions on wage inequality in the U.S. labor market. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 54, 296-315.
9.
Card, D., Kramarz, F., & Lemieux, T. (1999). Changes in the relative structure of wages and employment: A comparison of the United States, Canada, and France. Canadian Journal of Economics, 32, 843-877.
10.
DiNardo, J., Fortin, N., & Lemieux, T. (1996). Labor market institutions and the distribution of wages, 1973-1992: A semi-parametric approach. Econometrica, 64, 1001-1044.
11.
DiPrete, T. A., Maurin, E., Goux, D., & Quesnell-Valleé, A. (2004). Work and pay in flexible and regulated labor markets: A generalized perspective on institutional evolution and inequality trends in Europe and the U.S. Unpublished manuscript.
12.
Ebbinghaus, B., & Kittel, B. (2005). European rigidity versus American flexibility? The institutional adaptability of collective bargaining. Work and Occupations, 32, 163-195.
13.
Erikson, R., & Goldthorpe, J. H. (1992). The constant flux: A study of class mobility in industrial societies. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
14.
Featherman, D. L., Jones, F. L., & Hauser, R. M. (1975). Assumptions of social mobility research in the U.S.: The case of occupational status. Social Science Research, 4, 329-360.
15.
Firebaugh, G. (2003). The new geography of global income inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
16.
Gangl, M. (2005). Income inequality, permanent incomes, and income dynamics: Comparing Europe to the United States. Work and Occupations, 32, 140-162.
17.
Ganzeboom, H. B. G., Treiman, D. J., & Ultee, W. C. (1991). Comparative intergenerational stratification research: Three generations and beyond. Annual Review of Sociology, 17, 277-302.
18.
Gottschalk, P., & Smeeding, T. M. (1997). Cross national comparisons of earnings and income inequality. Journal of Economic Literature, 35, 633-687.
19.
Hancké, B., & Rhodes, M. (2005). EMU and labor market institutions in Europe: The rise and fall of national social pacts. Work and Occupations, 32, 196-228.
20.
Hout, M., & DiPrete, T. A. (2004). What have we learned? RC28’s contributions to knowledge about social stratification. Unpublished manuscript, University of California, Berkeley, Survey Research Center.
21.
Katz, L. F., & Autor, D. H. (1999). Changes in the wage structure and earnings inequality. In O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (Eds.), Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 3A (pp. 1463-1555). Amsterdam: North Holland.
22.
Kenworthy, L. (2004). Egalitarian capitalism: Jobs, incomes, and growth in affluence countries. New York: Russell Sage.
23.
Krueger, A., & Pischke, J.-S. (1997). Observations and conjectures on the U.S. employment miracle (Working Paper No. 6146). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
24.
Lee, D. S. (1999). Wage inequality during the 1980s: Rising dispersion or falling minimum wage?Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114, 977-1023.
25.
Maurin, E., & Postel-Vinay, F. (2005). The European job security gap. Work and Occupations, 32, 229-252.
26.
Morris, M., Bernhardt, A. D., Handcock, M. S., & Scott, M. (2001). Divergent paths: Economic mobility in the new American labor market. New York: Russell Sage.
27.
Morris, M., & Western, B. (1999). Inequality in earnings at the close of the twentieth century. Annual Review of Sociology, 25, 623-657.
28.
O’Mahony, M., Oulton, N., & Vass, J. (1998). Market services: Productivity benchmarks for the UK. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 60, 529-551.
29.
Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. (2003). Employment outlook: Towards more and better jobs. Paris: Author.
30.
Norris, F. (2004, December 10). Greek myths expose achilles’ heel of Europe’s common currency. New York Times, p. C1.
31.
Piketty, T., & Saez, E. (2003). Income inequality in the United States 1913-1998. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 143, 1-39.
32.
Pontusson, J., Rueda, D., & Way, C. R. (2002). Comparative political economy of wage distribution: The role of partisanship and labour market institutions. British Journal of Political Science, 32, 281-308.
33.
Swank, D. (2002). Global capital, political institutions, and policy change in developed welfare states. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
34.
Treiman, D. J. (1977). Occupational prestige in comparative perspective. New York: Academic Press.
35.
Western, B. (2002). The impact of incarceration on wage mobility and inequality. American Sociological Review, 67, 477-498.
