an article by Brian Nolan and Luis Valenzuela (University of Oxford, UK) and Matteo G. Richiardi (University of Essex, UK) published in Journal of Economic Surveys Volume 34 Issue 4 (September 2019)
Abstract
Rising income inequality has recently come centre‐stage as a core societal concern for rich countries.
The diagnosis of the forces driving inequality upwards and their relative importance remain hotly contested, notably with respect to the roles of globalization versus technology and of market forces versus institutions and policy choices.
This survey provides a critical review and synthesis of recent research.
The focus is on income inequality across the entire distribution, rather than only on what has been happening at the very top. We pay particular attention to include what has been learned from the analysis of micro‐data, to ensure that the coverage is not unduly US‐centric and to analyses of the interrelations between the different drivers of inequality.
The marked differences in inequality trends across countries and time periods reflect how global economic forces such as globalization and technological change have interacted with differing national contexts and institutions. Major analytical challenges stand in the way of a consensus emerging on the relative importance of different drivers in how income inequality has evolved in recent decades.
Showing posts with label market_power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label market_power. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 September 2019
Monday, 12 August 2019
Global declining competition
a column by Federico Diez, Jiayue Fan and Carolina Villegas-Sanchez for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
Studies of the evolution of market power since 2000 have focused mostly on publicly traded US firms.
This column introduces a new global study that incorporates private firms, and decomposes the aggregate effect into intensive and extensive margins. It shows the increase in markup is broad-based across countries and sectors, but is driven by a small number of firms. The markup increase is mainly explained by increases in the average markup of incumbents, and reallocation effects towards new firms that gain market share from incumbents.
Continue reading
Studies of the evolution of market power since 2000 have focused mostly on publicly traded US firms.
This column introduces a new global study that incorporates private firms, and decomposes the aggregate effect into intensive and extensive margins. It shows the increase in markup is broad-based across countries and sectors, but is driven by a small number of firms. The markup increase is mainly explained by increases in the average markup of incumbents, and reallocation effects towards new firms that gain market share from incumbents.
Continue reading
Monday, 8 July 2019
Untouchable firms: Market power, business dynamism, and productivity growth in the intangible economy
a column by Maarten de Ridder for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
The slowdown of productivity growth, the decline of business dynamism, and the rise of market power and firm concentration are three trends that have attracted a lot of attention in academic and policy debates.
This column points to the rising use of intangible inputs as a unified explanation for these trends. Firms with high intangible adoption disrupt sectors and initially boost productivity, but negatively affect the entry of new firms and suppress the effect of R&D on innovation and growth in the long run.
Continue reading
The slowdown of productivity growth, the decline of business dynamism, and the rise of market power and firm concentration are three trends that have attracted a lot of attention in academic and policy debates.
This column points to the rising use of intangible inputs as a unified explanation for these trends. Firms with high intangible adoption disrupt sectors and initially boost productivity, but negatively affect the entry of new firms and suppress the effect of R&D on innovation and growth in the long run.
Continue reading
Monday, 28 January 2019
Monopsony in the UK
a column by Will Abel, Silvana Tenreyro and Gregory Thwaites for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
Concentrated labour markets, in which workers have few choices of potential employers, reduce the wages of workers when they are not covered by collective wage bargaining agreements.
But these types of agreements have become much less common in the past 20 years.
This column uses employee-level data to show that even though UK labour markets have not on average become much more concentrated, concentration – which varies a great deal across regions and industries – is having a bigger impact on wages than before.
Continue reading
Concentrated labour markets, in which workers have few choices of potential employers, reduce the wages of workers when they are not covered by collective wage bargaining agreements.
But these types of agreements have become much less common in the past 20 years.
This column uses employee-level data to show that even though UK labour markets have not on average become much more concentrated, concentration – which varies a great deal across regions and industries – is having a bigger impact on wages than before.
Continue reading
Monday, 18 June 2018
Monopsony in online labour markets
a column by Arindrajit Dube, Jeff Jacobs, Suresh Naidu and Siddharth Suri for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
Monopsony refers to the market power that employers wield in labour markets. This column explores monopsony power in online labour markets, using observational and experimental data from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform.
Both datasets suggest an employer labour supply elasticity of close to 0.1, suggesting that a 10% reduction in wages would only see a 1% drop in willing labour. This points to substantial employer market power in a supposedly frictionless setting.
Continue reading
Monopsony refers to the market power that employers wield in labour markets. This column explores monopsony power in online labour markets, using observational and experimental data from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform.
Both datasets suggest an employer labour supply elasticity of close to 0.1, suggesting that a 10% reduction in wages would only see a 1% drop in willing labour. This points to substantial employer market power in a supposedly frictionless setting.
Continue reading
Tuesday, 15 May 2018
A genie in a bottle: Inflation, globalisation, and competition
a column by Dan Andrews, Peter Gal and William Witheridge for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
Low inflation at the same time as rising global competition has led to a debate on the importance of globalisation for domestic inflation. This column suggests that greater participation in global value chains has placed downward pressure on inflation. The current higher level of global value chain integration may also dampen inflation by accentuating the impact of global economic slack on domestic inflation. There is a risk that stalling globalisation since the crisis, coupled with stronger aggregate demand and declining market contestability, could lead to inflationary pressures in the medium term.
Continue reading
Low inflation at the same time as rising global competition has led to a debate on the importance of globalisation for domestic inflation. This column suggests that greater participation in global value chains has placed downward pressure on inflation. The current higher level of global value chain integration may also dampen inflation by accentuating the impact of global economic slack on domestic inflation. There is a risk that stalling globalisation since the crisis, coupled with stronger aggregate demand and declining market contestability, could lead to inflationary pressures in the medium term.
Continue reading
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
