| Popis: |
Measures of social mobility provide an extra dimension for testing job search models. The present note tests the dynamic model in [Acemoglu, D., 1999. Changes in unemployment and wage inequality: an alternative theory and some evidence. American Economic Review 89, 1259-1278] with respect to Fields’ mobility-as-an-equalizer-of-longer-term-incomes index. The 1980s in the U.S. were not only a period of raising inequality, but also one of longer-term earnings becoming even more unequal than short-term earnings. We establish that this pattern of social mobility (i) is consistent with Acemoglu's argument pointing to a qualitative change in job composition during this period, and (ii) would not arise had a qualitative change in labor markets equilibrium not taken place. |
