Concentrating on the Fall of the Labor Share
Open accessAbstract
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.
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The empirical literature tends to find higher markups for larger, more productive firms.
“The empirical literature also tends to find higher markups for larger, more productive firms.12”
From The Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms* (2020) · cites this paper as [12]
The Model section says larger-market-share firms can set higher markups in some models of imperfect competition, but markups are equal across firms in its monopolistic-competition model. The Introduction likewise treats a positive markup–size relationship as a possibility, not as a finding that the empirical literature tends to establish for larger, more productive firms. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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Cites
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Research works printed but not linked: 2
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- Karabarbounis, Loukas and Brent Neiman. 2013. "The Global Decline of the Labor Share." Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(1), 61-103.
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The Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms*
Autor, D. H., Dorn, D., Katz, L. F., Patterson, C., & Reenen, J. V. V. (2017) · Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.5167/uzh-143780 · Cited by 2,273
Self-citationThe Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms*
Autor, D., Dorn, D., Katz, L. F., Patterson, C., & Van Reenen, J. (2020) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1093/qje/qjaa004 · Cited by 2,206 · see citing works
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“A smaller number of superstar firms are gaining market share (Autor et al., 2017; Brynjolfsson et al., 2008) while workers’ earnings are increasingly tied to firm-level productivity differences (Song, Price, Guvenen, Bloom and von Wachter, 2015).”
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“Literature has suggested that the increased prevalence of ICTs may decrease competition and increase concentration within industries (D. Autor, Dorn, Katz, Patterson, & Van Reenen, 2017; Bessen, 2017; Van Reenen, 2018).”
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“Autor et al. [2017a] and Autor et al. [2017b] link the increase in concentration with the rise of more productive, superstar rms. And Barkai [2017] shows that the pro t share of the US non nancial corporate sector has increased drastically since 1985.”
InfluentialEconomics of Artificial Intelligence: Implications for the Future of Work
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“This stresses the importance of the debates about who owns the capital (Freeman, 2015) and the apparently negative impact of recent technological change on labor’s share in national income (Autor et al. 2017; Autor and Salomons 2018; Karabarbounis and Neiman 2014).”
Kaldor and Piketty’s facts: The rise of monopoly power in the United States
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“…focuses on puzzle (5) and (2), Barkai (2016) on (3) and (4), Caballero, Farhi and Gourinchas (2017) on (3) and (4), Piketty and Zucman (2014) on (1), Autor et al. (2017) on the fall in the labor share, Gomme, Ravikumar and Rupert (2015) on (3), De Loecker and Eeckhout (2017) on the rise of markups.”
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Akcigit, U., & Ateş, Ŝ. T. (2019) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/724289 · Cited by 172
“…papers documents an increasing market concentration in the United States (fact 1; see Furman and Giuliano 2016; Gutiérrez and Philippon 2016, 2017; Autor et al. 2017a, 2017b; Grullon, Larkin, and Michaely 2019; and Barkai 2020, among others).3 Second, several recent studies show an increase in…”
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BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialDigital Innovation and the Distribution of Income
Guellec, D., & Paunov, C. (2017) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w23987 · Cited by 125 · see citing works
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“3 Autor et al. (2017a, 185) state, “Our hypothesis is that technology or market conditions—or their interaction—have evolved to increasingly concentrate sales among firms with superior products or higher productivity, thereby enabling the most successful firms to control a larger market share.” They call these more ef…”
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“, 2017), a rise in concentration (Autor et al., 2017), and demographic changes (Glover & Short, 2020b); explanations that do not hinge on high values of σ. The elasticity also has important effects on the short-run dynamics of the labor share. This channel can be illustrated by computing the response of the labor shar…”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSmall and Large Firms over the Business Cycle
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“At the same time, the distribution of economic activity seems to be changing, as evidenced by increasing concentration of business output and the falling labor share (Autor et al. 2017).”
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“There is evidence elsewhere of rising product market concentration in our study period in Europe, the United States, and Japan (5, 32, 33).”
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“…by the fall in the relative price of capital with respect to labor (see Karabarbounis and Neiman, 2014), import intensity and o ff shoring (see Autor, Dorn, and Hanson, 2013), the decline in unionization (see Elsby, Hobijn, and Sahin,2013), or labor reallocation (see D. Autor et al., 2017, 2020).”
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“This allows us to revisit the patterns that Autor et al. (2017b) have documented in the context of the US data.”
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“Autor et al. (2017a) describe this as the ‘superstar’ firm hypothesis. Such a development may result in an increase in markups, profit and concentration that is also accompanied by lower costs, higher product varieties and higher productivity. Digitalization and globalization may have recently facilitated such develop…”
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“We get substantively similar trends if we aggregate counties into Metropolitan Statistical Areas or Commuting Zones (Autor et al. 2017).”
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“Labour’s share of GDP has fallen, so the average wage has grown slower than productivity (Autor et al, 2017; IMF, 2017).”
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The Micro-Level Anatomy of the Labor Share Decline*
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“Autor et al. (2017) and de Loecker et al. (2020) connect firm level data to questions of market power.”
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“…countries over the past few decades can be explained by global factors, such as technology-induced changes in market structure, the global decline in investment prices or the offshoring of the most labour-intensive stages of production (Autor et al, 2020; IMF, 2017; Karabarbounis and Neiman, 2014).”
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“The findings are consistent with those of Autor et al. (2017), showing that there has been a secular decline in the labour share in the U.S. since the 1980s, and especially in the 2000s.”
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“This trend also coincides with another recent trend showing a steady decline in the labor share of national income compared to the share of national income going to capital (Karabarbounis and Neiman, 2014; Baker, 2016; Autor et al., 2017a).”
BackgroundResultCompetition and monopoly in the U.S. economy: What do the industrial concentration data show?
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“Others argue that concentration is the efficient byproduct of technological change, as productivity differentials drive a reallocation of demand towards the highest-productivity firms, and/or as rising productivity differences lead to concentration (Autor et al., 2020, 2017).”
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“…(Elsby et al. (2013)), foreign direct investment in inflows and mechanization (Guerriero (2012)), structural change and heterogeneity (Alvarez-Cuadrado et al. (2015)), a global productivity slowdown (Grossman et al. (2018)), and increasing concentration within industries (Dorn et al. (2017)).”
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“This elevated market power is, in turn, tightly linked to the falling aggregate labor share of income (Autor et al., 2017, 2020; Kehrig and Vincent, 2018).”
Can capital deepening explain the global decline in labor's share?
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“Finally, there may be a role for changes in labor market competitiveness (see Autor, et al [3] on the rising concentration of market power of “superstar firms”, Glover and Short [7] on the effect of demographics when older workers have little bargaining power, and Elsby, et al [6] on the effect of import competition a…”
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“”(2) (1)See, among others, Autor et al. [2017], De Loecker and Eeckhout [2017], Werden and Froeb [2018], Gutierrez and Philippon [2017] and Weche and Wambach [2018], as well as the Obama administration’s CEA [2016] and the press coverage by Economist [Economist, 2016a,b] and Guardian [Stiglitz, 2016].”
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“Another possibility, as documented by Autor et al. (2017a), Autor et al. (2017b), is that market concentration has been rising in the US.”
BackgroundEisfeldt, A. L., Falato, A., & Xiaolan, M. Z. (2023) · NBER Macroeconomics Annual · doi:10.1086/723534 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
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“Change in concentration and labor share Following Autor et al. (2017b), we estimate the association between labor share and concentration rate (CR4) using information on 4-digit industries for manufacturing, service, transportation, wholesale and retail sectors along with the all sectors.”
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“Recent work has brought attention to the US phenomenon of high and rising market concentration, which has been associated with the rise of “superstar firms”; in other words, a concentration of domestic economic activity in a few large and highly productive firms (Autor et al. 2017, 2020).”
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Firm dynamics and pricing under customer capital accumulation
Roldan-Blanco, P., & Gilbukh, S. (2017) · Journal of Monetary Economics · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2909347 · Cited by 34
“Autor et al. (2017a,b) argue that the increase in sales and employment concentration across all major sectors has been driven by the top (socalled “superstar”) firms, experiencing the most dramatic increases in sales shares within their industries. Gutiérrez and Philippon (2017) argue that the decline in competition e…”
BackgroundWeymouth, S. J. (2023) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108974158 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Contextualizing corporate control in the agrifood and extractive sectors
Clapp, J., & Purugganan, J. (2020) · Globalizations · doi:10.1080/14747731.2020.1783814 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Agglomeration externalities of fast-growth firms
Du, J., & Vanino, E. (2020) · Regional studies · doi:10.1080/00343404.2020.1760234 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
“In addition, this finding seems consistent with the recent evidence of ‘superstar firms’ in manufacturing industries, where rapid growth of mark-ups leads to an increased concentration of labour and skills in few fast-growing firms (Autor et al., 2017).”
BackgroundResultThe Impacts of Digital Transformation on Labor Income Share: Evidence from China
Li, X., Feng, G., Shum, W. Y., & Chui, K. H. (2023) · Emerging Markets Finance and Trade · doi:10.1080/1540496x.2023.2273996 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
“Improving the income distribution pattern and raising disposable income form an important basis for raising the consumption level of the population and building a new development pattern (Autor et al. 2017, 2020).”
BackgroundCorporate financialization’s conservation and transformation: from Mark I to Mark II
Auvray, T., Durand, C., Rabinovich, J., & Rikap, C. (2021) · Review of Evolutionary Political Economy · doi:10.1007/s43253-021-00045-4 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
The new direction of technological change in the global economy
Antonelli, C., & Feder, C. (2020) · Structural Change and Economic Dynamics · doi:10.1016/j.strueco.2019.09.013 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Natural Monopolies in Digital Platform Markets
Ducci, F. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108867528 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Bougette, P., Budzinski, O., & Marty, F. (2019) · Revue d' Economie politique · doi:10.3917/redp.292.0261 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
“…(although more mixed across Europe, see Valletti 2017; Weche & Wambach 2018), which are considerably weakening the process of competition (Autor et al. 2017a, 2017b; Grullon et al. 2017; Gutiérrez & Philippon 2017, 2018).17 (6) It is possible also, that in the long run the frequent and…”
Capital Heterogeneity and the Decline of the Labour Share
O'Mahony, M., Vecchi, M., & Venturini, F. (2020) · Económica · doi:10.1111/ecca.12356 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
The Long‐Run Dynamics of the Labor Share in Japan
Fukao, K., & Perugini, C. (2020) · Review of Income and Wealth · doi:10.1111/roiw.12465 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
“, 2013; Bockerman and Maliranta, 2012; Jaumotte and Tytell, 2007; Jayadev, 2007), and to labour and product market imperfections that shape the bargaining power of workers vis-à-vis employers (Bental and Demougin, 2010; OECD, 2011; Azmat et al., 2012; Autor et al., 2017; Barkai, 2016).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialBargaining Power, Structural Change, and the Falling U.S. Labor Share
Cauvel, M., & Pacitti, A. (2022) · Structural Change and Economic Dynamics · doi:10.1016/j.strueco.2022.01.007 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Competition, Innovation, and Inclusive Growth
Aghion, P., Cherif, R., & Hasanov, F. (2021) · IMF Working Papers · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4026257 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
“This should not come as a surprise given the evidence about the high median wages in the top technology companies such as Google and Facebook, are more than four times the average wage in the same sector in the U.S. (see Autor et al. 2017 and Gutierrez and Philippon 2017).”
Workforce composition, productivity and pay: the role of firms in wage inequality
Criscuolo, C., Hijzen, A., Schwellnus, C., Chen, W.-H., Fabling, R., Fialho, P., Grabska, K., Kambayashi, R., Leidecker, T., Skans, O. N., et al. (2020) · OECD Economics Department Working Papers · doi:10.1787/52ab4e26-en · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Growth, Automation and the Long Run Share of Labor
Debraj Ray, R., & Mookherjee, D. (2020) · Review of economic dynamics (Print) · doi:10.3386/w26658 · Cited by 28
- Authors
- Autor, D., Dorn, D., Katz, L. F., Patterson, C., & Reenen, J. V.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- MIT Department of Economics and Sloan School, Cambridge, MA 02142 (e-mail: )
- Venue
- American Economic Review
- Publisher
- American Economic Association
- Published
- 2017-05-01
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 180-185
- ISSN
- 0002-8282 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2585432763
- Cited by
- 530
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 39 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 92 · 2020: 86 · 2019: 69 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 102.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- American Economic Review (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (submittedVersion)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Theses Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (submittedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/M010341/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › General Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economic Theory and Policy
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Merger and Competition Analysis
- Keywords
- labor share of GDP, superstar firms, winner-take-all competition, market concentration, declining labor share
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