Book · 2008 · intermediate level
The Race between Education and Technology
Claudia Goldin, Lawrence F. Katz
- Venue
- Harvard University Press
- ISBN
- 978-0-674-02867-8
- Link
- publisher / source page
~1,483 citations
Source: Semantic Scholar (via scispace aggregation) · verified 2026-07-20. Counts drift daily and differ by database; treat as a dated snapshot.
In plain language
Argues U.S. wage inequality fell for most of the 20th century because education expanded fast enough to outrun rising technological demand for skill — and rose again after 1980 specifically because that educational expansion stalled.
Technical summary
Century-long account of the U.S. education wage premium as a 'race' between the supply of schooling and the demand for skill created by technological change.
Key takeaways
- Reframes the SBTC story as fundamentally about the pace of educational attainment, not technology alone.
- Won the 2008 R.R. Hawkins Award.
Themes
Related works
- Changes in Relative Wages, 1963–1987: Supply and Demand Factors — Lawrence F. Katz & Kevin M. Murphy, 1992
- Skills, Education, and the Rise of Earnings Inequality among the ‘Other 99 Percent’ — David H. Autor, 2014