Technology Adoption and Wage Distribution in the U.S. Manufacturing Sector: Quantile Regression Analysis

Inchul Kim ; Insik Min

Research Fellow, Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, Seoul, Korea ikim@kiet.re.kr
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Kyung Hee University, Hoegi-dong 1, Dongdaemoon-gu, Seoul 130-701, Korea (ROK), Tel: +82-2-961-0966, Fax: +82-2-966-7426 imin@khu.ac.kr

JEL Classfication: C13, E24, J31, O33

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of technology adoption on the wage dispersion in the U.S. manufacturing sector using the quantile regression method. We obtain two main results. First, during the period of 1970 to 1995, the marginal effect of capital intensity on wage has risen. Second, the marginal effect on high-wage quantiles has risen more than that on low-wage quantiles. These results suggest that (1) high-wage quantile have adopted technologies more actively than others, and (2) high-captial intensity industries have contributed to the widening of wage dispersion over the period.

Keywords:

Technology adoption, Wage dispersion, Quantile regression

Acknowledgments

respectively. Insik Min's research was supported by the Kyung Hee University Research Fund in 2004 (KHU-20040335). We wish to thank anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions. Any remaining errors are our own.

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