Capital productivity and the decreasing wage share in the United States: a Keynesian Approach

Abstract

Abstract We argue that in the US there is a causal relationship running unidirectionally from negative shocks in capital productivity to negative variations in the wage share. We sustain that, faced with a capital productivity decrease, the US firm sector pushes wages down to maximize the rate of profit. Through asymmetric SVAR techniques that are robust to endogeneity and structural breaks; we show that decreases in capital productivity unidirectionally cause decreases in the wage share. We offer some possible explanations for that.