Causes of Rising Wage Inequality in the 1990s: Evidence from the Argentine Manufacturing Sector

The 1990s the causes of rising wage inequality were at the center of two lines of studies: those focusing on the employment and wage outcomes of trade liberalization, and those concerned with the wage effects of changes in labor institutions. This chapter examines wage inequality trends in the Argentine manufacturing sector and their possible economic and institutional causes. It shows that the analytical framework reviews the determinants of changes in the degree of wage inequality with the emphasis on changing skill requirements as a result, inter alia , of trade liberalization, and on trade union intervention. The chapter analyses evidence from Argentina during the 1990s, focusing on manufacturing, the sector most directly affected by trade liberalization. It describes the impacts of trade liberalization and export expansion on the volume and structure of employment, as well as the changes that took place in trade union intervention and collective bargaining.