Firm heterogeneity and the aggregate labour share

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

March 1, 2024

Summary:

We propose a model-based decomposition method for the aggregate labour share in terms of the first moments of the joint distribution of total factor productivity, market power, wages and prices, and apply it to UK manufacturing using firm-level data for 1998–2014. Contrary to a narrative focussing on increasing disparities between firms, the observed decline in the aggregate labour share over the period is driven entirely by the decline in the labour share of the representative firm, mostly due to an increasing disconnect between average productivity and real wages. Changes in the dispersion of firm-level variables have contributed to slightly contain this decline.

Published in

Labour

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 38 , p.66 -101

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.12265

ISSN

11217081

Subjects

Notes

© 2024 The Authors. LABOUR published by Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


Related Publications

#578262

News

Latest findings, new research

Publications search

Search all research by subject and author

Podcasts

Researchers discuss their findings and what they mean for society

Projects

Background and context, methods and data, aims and outputs

Events

Conferences, seminars and workshops

Survey methodology

Specialist research, practice and study

Taking the long view

ISER's annual report

Themes

Key research themes and areas of interest