in addition there are notable crosscountry differences in the current level of earnings inequality since all oecd economies face the same global environment and have essentially benefited from the same technological advances globalisation and skillbiased technological change should have led to broadly similar shifts in labour demand even though countries have differed with respect to supply shifts a relative supplydemand shift story is unlikely to fully account for the marked crosscountry differences in both the level and the evolution of labour earnings inequality this hints at a possible role for differences in policy and institutional settings