Working Paper

Skilled Tradable Services: The Transformation of U.S. High-Skill Labor Markets

Abstract: We study a group of service industries that are skill-intensive, widely traded, and have recently seen explosive wage growth. Between 1980 and 2015, these ?Skilled Tradable Services? accounted for a sharply increasing share of employment among the highest earning Americans. Unlike any other sector, their wage growth was strongly biased toward the densest local labor markets and the highest paying firms. These services alone explain 30% of the increase in inequality between the 50th and 90th percentiles of the wage distribution. We offer an explanation for these patterns that highlights the complementarity between the non-rivalry of knowledge and changes in communication costs.

Keywords: Wage inequality; Skill biased; Technological change; Urban growth; Trade and geography;

JEL Classification: J31; O33; R11; R12;

https://doi.org/10.21034/iwp.25

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Part of Series: Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers

Publication Date: 2019-09-13

Number: 25

Pages: 53 pages