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Skill Polarization and Inequality: Are They Real and Inevitable?

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Getting Globalization Right

Abstract

This paper examines some of the characteristics and the possible causes of job polarization, a process that has been progressing for some time, but that has only recently become the focus of a more intense attention of economists and policy makers. The paper looks at three different phenomena behind the seemingly increasing divergence between high and low skill jobs: (i) the evolution of the mode of production and the model of organization of the firm, (ii) the evolution of the value chains, that have become longer and more fragmented, more internationally spread, and increasingly dependent on logistics and information technology and, (iii) the reshuffling of professional competences and comparative advantage depending on the new technologies and especially on the so called internet revolution.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The so-called principle of subsidiarity is precisely this: a hierarchical principle of proximity.

  2. 2.

    These principles correspond to the principle of social governance.

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Correspondence to Luigi Paganetto .

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Paganetto, L., Scandizzo, P.L. (2018). Skill Polarization and Inequality: Are They Real and Inevitable?. In: Paganetto, L. (eds) Getting Globalization Right. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97692-1_3

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