Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/80546 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7426
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper sheds light on how changes in the organization of work can help to understand increasing wage inequality. We present a theoretical model in which workers with a wider span of competence (higher level of multitasking) earn a wage premium. Since abilities and opportunities to expand the span of competence are distributed unequally among workers across and within education groups, our theory helps to explain (1) rising wage inequality between groups, and (2) rising wage inequality within groups. Under certain assumptions, it also helps to explain (3) the polarization of the income distribution. Using a rich German data set covering a 20-year period from 1986 to 2006, we provide empirical support for our model.
Subjects: 
wage inequality
multitasking
tasks
organizational change
JEL: 
J31
J24
L23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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