In the 1980s and 1990s, the U.S. labor market experienced a remarkable polarization along with fast technological catch-up as Europe and Japan improved their global innovation performance. Is foreign technological convergence an important source of wage polarization? To answer this question, we build a multicountry Schumpeterian growth model with heterogeneous workers, endogenous skill formation, and occupational choice. We show that convergence produces polarization through business stealing and increasing competition in global innovation races. Quantitative analysis shows that these channels can be important sources of U.S. polarization. Moreover, the model delivers predictions on the U.S. wealth-income ratio consistent with empirical evidence.

中文翻译：

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全球化与工资极化

在1980年代和1990年代，随着欧洲和日本改善其全球创新绩效，美国劳动力市场经历了显着的两极分化以及技术的快速追赶。外国技术融合是工资两极化的重要来源吗？为了回答这个问题，我们建立了一个具有异类工人，内生技能形成和职业选择的多国熊彼特式增长模型。我们表明，融合通过在全球创新竞赛中窃取业务和增加竞争而产生两极分化。定量分析表明，这些渠道可能是美国两极分化的重要来源。此外，该模型还提供了与经验证据相符的美国财富收入比预测。