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ENDOGENOUS POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS, WAGE INEQUALITY, AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2016

Christos Pargianas
Christos Pargianas*
Affiliation:
University of Scranton
*
Address correspondence to: Christos Pargianas, University of Scranton, 320 Madison Avenue, Scranton, PA 18510, USA; e-mail: christos.pargianas@scranton.edu.
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Abstract

The paper suggests that the political changes brought about by the increase in the proportion of college graduates in the U.S. labor force in the 1970s may have contributed to the decline in the college premium during the 1970s and its increase during the 1980s and 1990s. The study argues that the proportion of skilled workers in the labor force affected their relative importance in the political process. Thus, the increase in the proportion of skilled workers during the 1970s reduced the skill premium in the short run, but induced a change in policies that favored skilled workers and increased the skill premium in the long run.

Keywords

Economic InstitutionsInequalityEducationEconomic Growth

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Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 183 - 213
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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