TY  - JOUR
AU  - Margo,Robert A.
AU  - Villaflor,Georgia C.
TI  - The Antebellum "Surge" in Skill Differentials One More Time:  New Evidence
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 1758
PY  - 1985
Y2  - November 1985
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w1758
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w1758.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Robert A. Margo
Department of Economics
Boston University
270 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
Tel: 617/353-6819
Fax: 617/343-8495
E-Mail: margora@bu.edu

Georgia C. Villaflor
7625 Reinhardt Dr.
Prairie Village KS  66208-4018
Tel: 256-335-3009
E-Mail: gvillaflor@juno.com
AB  - Changes in the skill differential are often used by economic historians to proxy changes in income inequality. According to Jeffrey Williamson and Peter Lindert, American skill differentials rose sharply between 1820 and 1860, which they interpret as increasing income inequality. Using a large, new sample of wage rates drawn from military records, we find no evidence of an aggregate "surge" in antebellum skill differentials. We do find, however, that skill differentials on the frontier rose relative to levels in settled areas. We show how a reduction in the costs of migrating from old to new regions can explain this finding.
ER  -