@article{b1a6e010dc054df5a54a0e300e2a2d7e,
title = "Wage inequality in the United States during the 1980s: Rising dispersion or falling minimum wage?",
abstract = "The magnitude of growth in {"}underlying{"} wage inequality in the United States during the 1980s is obscured by a concurrent decline in the federal minimum wage, which itself could cause an increase in observed wage inequality. This study uses regional variation in the relative level of the federal minimum wage to separately identify the impact of the minimum wage from nationwide growth in {"}latent{"} wage dispersion during the 1980s. The analysis suggests that the minimum wage can account for much of the rise in dispersion in the lower tail of the wage distribution, particularly for women.",
author = "Lee, {Davis S.}",
note = "Funding Information: * I am indebted to David Card, Lawrence Katz, and Orley Ashenfelter for invaluable comments on earlier drafts. I also thank Michael Boozer, Gena Estes, Michael Greenstone, Bo Honor{\'e}, and Thomas Lemieux for many helpful discussions, and Daron Acemoglu, Joshua Angrist, Kenneth Chay, Alan Krueger, Christina Lee, Andrew Oswald, J{\"o}rn-Steffen Pischke, Cecilia Rouse, two anonymous referees, and participants of the Princeton Industrial Relations Section Labor Seminar and Labor Lunch, and of the MIT Labor Seminar for their comments and suggestions. I gratefully acknowledge the National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship for financial support, and the National Bureau of Economic Research—West, where much of this research was conducted.",
year = "1999",
month = aug,
doi = "10.1162/003355399556197",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "114",
pages = "977--1023",
journal = "Quarterly Journal of Economics",
issn = "0033-5533",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
number = "3",
}