The Elusive Explanation for the Declining Labor Share / Gene M. Grossman, Ezra Oberfield.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grossman, Gene M.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Oberfield, Ezra.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w29165.

NBER working paper series no. w29165

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2021.

Summary:

A vast literature seeks to measure and explain the apparent decline in the labor share in national income that has occurred in recent times in the United States and elsewhere. The culprits include technological change, increased globalization and the rise of China, the enhanced exercise of market power by large firms in concentrated product markets, the decline in unionization rates and the erosion in the bargaining power of workers in labor markets, and the changing composition of the workforce due to a slowdown in population growth and a rise in educational attainment. We review this literature, with special emphasis on the pitfalls associated with using cross-sectional data to assess this phenomenon and the reasons why the body of papers collectively explains the phenomenon many times over.

Notes:

Print version record

August 2021.