{"title":"Making their own weather? Estimating employer labour-market power and its wage effects","authors":"Pedro S. Martins , António Melo","doi":"10.1016/j.jue.2023.103614","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The subdued wage growth observed in many countries has spurred interest in monopsony views of regional labour markets. This study measures the extent and robustness of employer power and its wage implications exploiting comprehensive matched employer–employee data. We find average (employment-weighted) Herfindhal indices of 800 to 1,100, stable over the 1986–2019 period covered, and that typically less than 8% of workers are exposed to concentration levels thought to raise market power concerns. When controlling for both worker and firm heterogeneity and instrumenting for concentration, we find that wages are negatively affected by employer concentration, with elasticities of around −1.4%. We also find that several methodological choices can change significantly both the measurement of concentration and its wage effects.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48340,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119023000840/pdfft?md5=12b8c77b6b44a9f42826c20ed34992ee&pid=1-s2.0-S0094119023000840-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Urban Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119023000840","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The subdued wage growth observed in many countries has spurred interest in monopsony views of regional labour markets. This study measures the extent and robustness of employer power and its wage implications exploiting comprehensive matched employer–employee data. We find average (employment-weighted) Herfindhal indices of 800 to 1,100, stable over the 1986–2019 period covered, and that typically less than 8% of workers are exposed to concentration levels thought to raise market power concerns. When controlling for both worker and firm heterogeneity and instrumenting for concentration, we find that wages are negatively affected by employer concentration, with elasticities of around −1.4%. We also find that several methodological choices can change significantly both the measurement of concentration and its wage effects.
期刊介绍：
The Journal of Urban Economics provides a focal point for the publication of research papers in the rapidly expanding field of urban economics. It publishes papers of great scholarly merit on a wide range of topics and employing a wide range of approaches to urban economics. The Journal welcomes papers that are theoretical or empirical, positive or normative. Although the Journal is not intended to be multidisciplinary, papers by noneconomists are welcome if they are of interest to economists. Brief Notes are also published if they lie within the purview of the Journal and if they contain new information, comment on published work, or new theoretical suggestions.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
