Concentrating on the Fall of the Labor Share
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The recent fall of labor's share of GDP in numerous countries is well-documented, but its causes are poorly understood. We sketch a "superstar firm" model where industries are increasingly characterized by "winner take most" competition, leading a small number of highly profitable (and low labor share) firms to command growing market share. Building on Autor et al. (2017), we evaluate and confirm two core claims of the superstar firm hypothesis: the concentration of sales among firms within industries has risen across much of the private sector; and industries with larger increases in concentration exhibit a larger decline in labor's share.
Date issued
2017-05Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics; Sloan School of ManagementJournal
American Economic Review
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Autor, David et al. “Concentrating on the Fall of the Labor Share.” American Economic Review 107, 5 (May 2017): 180–185
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0002-8282
1944-7981