Trends in Earnings Differentials across College Majors and the Changing Task Composition of Jobs
研究发现自1990年代初以来，美国大学毕业生不同专业间的收入差距显著扩大，其中约三分之二的增长可由专业相关的抽象、常规和体力任务技能的市场回报变化解释。
We show that, among college graduates, earnings differentials across field of study have increased substantially since the early 1990s. We study the degree to which this increase can be accounted for by changes in the labor market return to skills associated with a major. To do so, we define major-specific measures of the relative importance of abstract, routine, and manual tasks on the job, by linking majors to the occupations they typically lead to. Changes in the relationship between earnings and these measures can account for about two-thirds of the rise in inequality.