Globalisation and wage inequalities, 1870–1970

This article analyses the effects of globalisation on wage inequality in a group of eight now-developed countries during the century prior to 1970, using the same dependent variable and methodology as research on the impact of globalisation since 1970. The results suggest that the impact of globalisation on wage inequality before 1970 was confined largely to the effects of the pre-1914 mass migrations in the United States and Canada. Powerful domestic forces — expanding native supplies of skilled labour, the growth of new skill-intensive industries, and fluctuations in the level of aggregate demand — were the main influences on wage inequality for most of the period.