劳动力市场极化的收入渠道

中文摘要

我们通过构建一个具有异质性消费者、非位似偏好以及遵循 Roy (1951) 的内生劳动供给的框架，研究劳动力市场极化问题。由于收入弹性较高的部门密集使用高技能和低技能职业，无论是提高家庭平均收入的冲击，还是扩大其收入离散度的冲击，都会使相对劳动需求转向这些职业，从而形成通向极化的收入渠道。我们通过比较影响家庭收入分布的冲击在本模型与一个位似偏好版本（该版本中收入分布不影响部门构成）中的效应，来量化这一渠道。收入渠道的作用相当可观：它解释了1980年至2016年间观察到的高技能和低技能工人相对工资涨幅的42%和210%，以及其工作时数份额涨幅的26%和51%。其效应中有四分之一通过收入离散度发挥作用，凸显了在非位似环境中偏离代表性消费者框架的重要性。

Abstract

We study labor-market polarization by developing a framework with heterogeneous consumers, non-homothetic preferences, and endogenous labor supply a la Roy (1951). Because income-elastic sectors are intensive in high- and low-skilled occupations, shocks that raise either the average or the dispersion of income across households shift relative labor demand toward these occupations, generating an income channel to polarization. We quantify this channel by comparing the effect of shocks that affect the distribution of household income in our model and in a version with homothetic preferences in which the income distribution does not affect sectoral composition. The income channel is sizable: it explains 42% and 210% of the increases in the relative wages of high- and low-skill workers observed between 1980 and 2016, and 26% and 51% of the increase in their hours-worked shares. A quarter of its effect operates through income dispersion, highlighting the importance of departing from representative-consumer frameworks in non-homothetic environments.