Inequality Seminar: Wage Inequality During the Great Depression

February 11, 2016
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Seashore Hall W113

The Inequality Seminar is a seminar and speaker series that provides a forum on campus for faculty and graduate students who are interested in inequality broadly defined.  It is an opportunity for faculty and graduate students to present their research and to hear about other inequality-related work from researchers on and off-campus.

Nicolas Ziebarth is Assistant Professor of Economics in the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. His research interests include the Great Depression, General Economic History, Macroeconomics, Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Econometrics.

This week, we study wage inequality during the Great Depression using a newly constructed dataset from the Census of Manufactures. We find an inverted U-shaped pattern in the skill premium between 1919 and 1937 with a peak in 1935. There is also substantial heterogeneity in wage changes across industries, states, and establishments during the downturn between 1929 and 1933. Finally, we find a U shaped pattern between wage changes from 1929 to 1933 and initial percentile in the 1929 wage distribution at the establishment level.

The Inequality Seminar meets Thursdays from 12:00-1:30 p.m., in W113 Seashore Hall.  The schedule of talks can be found here.

If you have any questions about the Inequality Seminar, please contact Sarah Bruch at sarah-bruch@uiowa.edu. 

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation, in order to participate in this program, please contact the Department of Sociology in advance at 335-2502.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Dragana Petic at dragana-petic@uiowa.edu.