An international comparison of overlapping time period with some potential for variation in expansion/contraction timing and duration would be a nice addition… and could possibly shed some light on policy impacts on wages and wage distributions. I personally do not get upset by wider inequality if mobility and some growth is seen across the distribution, but I do wonder if some countries with less flexible labor markets show substantially different distributional changes over time and through cycles…
Thanks for a nice overview, and I’m looking forward to your deeper dives. I think it’s important to note that the CPS is likely not picking up the top 1 percent of wages, and so the data you’re using substantially understates wage inequality.
Terrific presentation and discussion of these wage trends. A general question it raises for me is how well the CPI (or one of its variants) captures changes in cost of living. More specifically, it would be great to see these trends discussed in relation to trends in (1) direct measures of material hardship (which, I realize, are hard to find and complicated); (2) wealth; (3) labor force participation, broken out by gender; and (4) government benefits (e.g., SNAP, EITC, TANF, Section 8 vouchers).
An international comparison of overlapping time period with some potential for variation in expansion/contraction timing and duration would be a nice addition… and could possibly shed some light on policy impacts on wages and wage distributions. I personally do not get upset by wider inequality if mobility and some growth is seen across the distribution, but I do wonder if some countries with less flexible labor markets show substantially different distributional changes over time and through cycles…
That spike in 2020 is dead givaway that these are not wage indexes they are unit values. BLS OUGHT to produce wage indexes, but it does not.
Thanks for a nice overview, and I’m looking forward to your deeper dives. I think it’s important to note that the CPS is likely not picking up the top 1 percent of wages, and so the data you’re using substantially understates wage inequality.
Great work. I would love to see globalization assessed, since to two periods of serious wage stagnation correspond to rapid import penetration waves.
Terrific presentation and discussion of these wage trends. A general question it raises for me is how well the CPI (or one of its variants) captures changes in cost of living. More specifically, it would be great to see these trends discussed in relation to trends in (1) direct measures of material hardship (which, I realize, are hard to find and complicated); (2) wealth; (3) labor force participation, broken out by gender; and (4) government benefits (e.g., SNAP, EITC, TANF, Section 8 vouchers).