Arbeitspapier
Micro-mechanisms behind declining labour shares: Market power, production processes, and global competition
This article investigates how changing production processes and increasing market power at the firm level relate to a fall in Germany's manufacturing sector labour share. Coinciding with the fall of the labour share, I document a rise in firms' product and labour market power. Notably, labour market power is a more relevant source of firms' market power than product market power. Increasing product and labour market power, however, only account for 30% of the fall in the labour share. The remaining 70% are explained by a transition of firms towards less labour-intensive production activities. I study the role of final product trade in causing those secular movements. I find that rising foreign export demand contributes to a decline in the labour share by increasing labour market power within firms and by inducing a reallocation of economic activity from nonexporting-high-labour-share to exporting-low-labour-share firms.
- Sprache
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Englisch
- Erschienen in
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Series: IWH-CompNet Discussion Papers ; No. 3/2019
- Klassifikation
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Wirtschaft
Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
Trade and Labor Market Interactions
Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining: General
Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance: General
Industry Studies: Manufacturing: General
- Thema
-
labour share
market power
labour market distortions
international trade
factor substitution
- Ereignis
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (wer)
-
Mertens, Matthias
- Ereignis
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Veröffentlichung
- (wer)
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Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH)
- (wo)
-
Halle (Saale)
- (wann)
-
2019
- Handle
- URN
-
urn:nbn:de:gbv:3:2-104802
- Letzte Aktualisierung
-
10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ
Datenpartner
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Objekttyp
- Arbeitspapier
Beteiligte
- Mertens, Matthias
- Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH)
Entstanden
- 2019