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Article: What's driving wage inequality?
- Article from:
- Economic Quarterly
- Article date:
- June 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Most of the time, we assess an economy's performance using broad aggregate measures of output and wealth. In this regard, the United States is doing quite well. It is the richest country in the world. U.S. gross domestic product exceeded $11 trillion last year--roughly $38,000 per capita. And despite the slowdown associated with the 2001 recession, the economy has expanded at an average annual rate of more than 3 percent over the past 10 years. The way people actually feel about the economy's performance is shaped by their individual experiences, however, and here there is always great diversity. Indeed, there remains substantial anxiety about the direction the economy is ...