Pleités Lemus, G R (2020) Wage inequality and policy in the United States unionized construction industry from 1907 to 2012. PhD thesis, University of Utah, USA.
Abstract
We describe the process of discovery and tabulation of industrial and public data sources chronicling union wages across geographies and construction crafts in the United States during most of the 20th century and early 21st century. With this data, we are the first to determine the effect of state PWLs enactments using Feasible Generalized Least Squares estimations. We found that PWLs have not been effective at raising real union wages in most of the 20th century. We also found that the policy favors some construction crafts over others, with relevant implications on inequality within the unionized industry. We also explored the phenomena of the Great Compression from the perspective of the unionized construction industry. Using Theil indexes and their decompositions, we question whether inequality in the unionized industry is due to skill-biased technological change or institutional effects.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Philips, P W |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | United States; crafts; inequality; policy; technological change; wages |
| Index terms: | technological change, inequality, construction industry, estimation, compression, wages, United States |
| Subjects: | business economics, Geography, innovation studies, sociology, industry analysis, material properties and characteristics, financial and cost management |
| Topics: | Geographical Context, Ethics, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Construction Materials, Research Practice, Human Resources |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here