TY  - JOUR
AU  - Valletta, Robert G
TI  - Recent Flattening in the Higher Education Wage Premium: Polarization, Skill Downgrading, or Both?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 22935
PY  - 2016
Y2  - December 2016
DO  - 10.3386/w22935
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w22935
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w22935.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Robert G. Valletta
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
101 Market St.
San Francisco, CA 94105
E-Mail: rob.valletta@sf.frb.org
M1  - published as Robert G. Valletta. "Recent Flattening in the Higher Education Wage Premium: Polarization, Skill Downgrading, or Both?," in Charles R. Hulten and Valerie A. Ramey, editors, "Education, Skills, and Technical Change: Implications for Future US GDP Growth" University of Chicago Press (2019)

M3  - presented at "CRIW Conference", October 16-17, 2015
AB  - Wage gaps between workers with a college or graduate degree and those with only a high school degree rose rapidly in the United States during the 1980s. Since then, the rate of growth in these wage gaps has progressively slowed, and though the gaps remain large, they were essentially unchanged between 2010 and 2015. I assess this flattening over time in higher education wage premiums with reference to two related explanations for changing U.S. employment patterns: (i) a shift away from middle-skilled occupations driven largely by technological change (“polarization”); and (ii) a general weakening in the demand for advanced cognitive skills (“skill downgrading”). Analyses of wage and employment data from the U.S. Current Population Survey suggest that both factors have contributed to the flattening of higher education wage premiums.
ER  -