Walras-Bowley lecture: market power and wage inequality

We propose a theory of how market power affects wage inequality. We ask how goods and labor market power jointly determine the level of wages, the skill premium, and wage inequality. We then use detailed microdata from the U.S. Census Bureau between 1997 and 2016 to estimate the parameters of labor...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Deb, Shubhdeep, Eeckhout, Jan, Patel, Aseem, Warren, Lawrence
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/70684
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/70684
http://dx.doi.org/10.3982/ECTA21157
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Market power
Wage inequality
Skill premium
Technological change
Market structure
Endogenous markups
Endogenous markdowns
Descripción
Sumario:We propose a theory of how market power affects wage inequality. We ask how goods and labor market power jointly determine the level of wages, the skill premium, and wage inequality. We then use detailed microdata from the U.S. Census Bureau between 1997 and 2016 to estimate the parameters of labor supply, technology, and the market structure. We find that a less competitive market structure lowers the average wage of high-skilled workers by 11.3%, and of low-skilled workers by 12.2%, contributes 8.1% to the rise in the skill premium, and accounts for 54.8% of the increase in between-establishment wage variance.