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
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: IWH-CompNet Discussion Papers ; No. 3/2019

Klassifikation
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
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Mertens, Matthias
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
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

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