Changing Unchanged Inequality: Higher Education, Youth Population, and the Japanese Seniority Wage System

Author

Ken YAMADA, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Daiji KAWAGUCHI, Hitotsubashi University

Publication Type

Working Paper

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

5-2012

Abstract

Wage inequality declined in the 1990s and rose after 2000 among full-time male workers in Japan. Narrowing wage inequality in the 1990s can be accounted for by a decline in between-group inequality resulting from a stable return to education and decreased returns to experience and tenure. Widening wage inequality after 2000 can be accounted for by a rise in within-group inequality resulting from a relative increase in educated and experienced workers, as well as changes in heterogeneous returns to human capital.

Keywords

wage inequality, heterogeneous returns to human capital, composition effects, seniority wages

Discipline

Asian Studies | Labor Economics

Research Areas

Applied Microeconomics

First Page

1

Last Page

35

Citation

YAMADA, Ken and KAWAGUCHI, Daiji. Changing Unchanged Inequality: Higher Education, Youth Population, and the Japanese Seniority Wage System. (2012). 1-35.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/1504

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.