John Schmitt
Papers
1
Total Citations
17
H-Index
1
About
John Schmitt is a labor economist whose research has made meaningful contributions to our understanding of wage inequality, labor market dynamics, and the forces shaping employment in modern economies. His work challenges prevailing narratives in economic discourse — most notably in his critically engaged piece *"Don't Blame the Robots: Assessing the Job Polarization Explanation of Growing Wage Inequality"* (2016), which has garnered 17 citations. In this work, Schmitt scrutinizes the popular "job polarization" thesis, which attributes rising wage inequality largely to technological automation displacing middle-skill workers. Rather than accepting this explanation uncritically, Schmitt carefully evaluates the empirical evidence and raises important questions about whether technology alone can adequately account for observed inequality trends. This kind of rigorous, skeptical analysis is characteristic of his broader approach to labor economics — one that resists oversimplified narratives and pushes researchers to consider the full range of institutional, political, and structural factors driving economic outcomes. His scholarship is particularly valuable for students and researchers seeking nuanced, evidence-based perspectives on labor markets and inequality in contemporary economies.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
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