2021
Working Paper
HBS Working Paper Series

Digital Labor Market Inequality and the Decline of IT Exceptionalism

Format:Print
| Language:English
| Pages:72

Abstract

Several decades of expansion in digital communications, web commerce, and online distribution have altered regional IT labor market returns in the United States. IT occupations experienced similar wage growth as STEM occupations involving IT-related work activities, and wage inequality rose across locations and within Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Supply side characteristics especially agglomeration and skilled labor pooling contributed to regional variation in IT wages since 2005. The size distribution of establishments in IT-using services industries increasingly drove IT wage inequality after 2012. While market concentration contributed to wage premiums across locations, establishment count contributed to within-MSA wage spread.

Keywords

Information Technology; Labor; Wages; Equality and Inequality

Citation

Cao, Ruiqing, and Shane Greenstein. "Digital Labor Market Inequality and the Decline of IT Exceptionalism." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-019, August 2020. (Revised January 2021. NBER Working Paper Series, No. 21-015, August 2020)