Occupational dynamics and wage inequality in Europe

IF 5 2区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS

Structural Change and Economic Dynamics Pub Date : 2025-05-24 DOI:10.1016/j.strueco.2025.05.025

Guillermo Orfao , Enrique Fernández-Macías , Miguel Ángel Malo

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Abstract

This article presents a comparative analysis of the role played by occupational changes in recent wage inequality trends in six European countries. This work contributes to a better understanding of how within- and between-occupation differences have influenced wage inequality trends in Europe. The database used is the European Union Structure of Earnings Survey for the period 2002–2018. The analysis shows two patterns in the share of wage inequality explained by between-occupation differentials: while the relative importance of between-occupation trends has grown in Finland and the UK, it has diminished in Spain, France, Poland and Romania. And although between-occupation differentials still account for a great share of total wages’ variance, changes in the occupational structure (in particular, the patterns of job polarisation and upgrading widely discussed in the literature) have not driven recent wage inequality trends in Europe. Wage inequality, instead, has been mostly driven by changes in wage differentials within occupations. Finally, we found that the explanatory significance of occupations markedly declines at the highest wage tiers.

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欧洲的职业动态和工资不平等

这篇文章提出了六个欧洲国家最近工资不平等趋势中职业变化所起作用的比较分析。这项工作有助于更好地理解职业内部和职业之间的差异如何影响欧洲的工资不平等趋势。使用的数据库是2002-2018年期间欧盟收入结构调查。分析显示，职业间差异所解释的工资不平等比例有两种模式：尽管职业间趋势的相对重要性在芬兰和英国有所上升，但在西班牙、法国、波兰和罗马尼亚却有所下降。尽管职业之间的差异仍然占总工资差异的很大一部分，但职业结构的变化（特别是文献中广泛讨论的工作两极分化和升级模式）并没有推动欧洲最近的工资不平等趋势。相反，工资不平等主要是由职业内部工资差异的变化造成的。最后，我们发现职业的解释意义在最高工资阶层显著下降。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Structural Change and Economic Dynamics ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

9.60

自引率

4.90%

发文量

159

期刊介绍： Structural Change and Economic Dynamics publishes articles about theoretical, applied and methodological aspects of structural change in economic systems. The journal publishes work analysing dynamics and structural breaks in economic, technological, behavioural and institutional patterns.