Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
3-2015
Abstract
Wage inequality declined in the 1990s, while it increased in the 2000s for full-time male workers in Japan. We find that a decreased return to firm-specific human capital, which has been neglected in previous empirical analyses of inequality, is a key factor preventing a rise in wage inequality during the prolonged period of economic stagnation, known as Japan’s lost decades. We also find that, while changes in returns to general and specific human capital contributed to narrowing wage inequality in the 1990s and widening wage inequality in the 2000s, a significant fraction of the increase in wage inequality in the 2000s is attributable to composition effects arising from an increased share of educated and experienced workers, among whom wages are more dispersed.
Discipline
Asian Studies | Labor Economics
Research Areas
Applied Microeconomics
Publication
Journal of Economic Inequality
Volume
13
Issue
1
First Page
129
Last Page
153
ISSN
1569-1721
Identifier
10.1007/s10888-014-9295-6
Publisher
Springer
Citation
YAMADA, Ken and KAWAGUCHI, Daiji.
The Changing and Unchanged Nature of Inequality and Seniority in Japan. (2015). Journal of Economic Inequality. 13, (1), 129-153.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/1641
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.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-014-9295-6