The Global Decline of the Labor Share
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23356247 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Loukas Karabarbounis (University of Chicago), Brent Neiman (University of Chicago) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 129 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 61-103 |
| Publication date | 2014-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Quarterly Journal of Economics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-5533 • E-ISSN: 1531-4650 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/qje/qjt032 |
| OpenAlex | W2155379226 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 239 |
| References cited | 21 |
The stability of the labor share of income is a key foundation in macroeconomic models. We document, however, that the global labor share has significantly declined since the early 1980s, with the decline occurring within the large majority of countries and industries. We show that the decrease in the relative price of investment goods, often attributed to advances in information technology and the computer age, induced firms to shift away from labor and toward capital. The lower price of investment goods explains roughly half of the observed decline in the labor share, even when we allow for other mechanisms influencing factor shares, such as increasing profits, capital-augmenting technology growth, and the changing skill composition of the labor force. We highlight the implications of this explanation for welfare and macroeconomic dynamics.
Capital (architecture) · Capital good · Economics · Factor shares · Goods and services · Investment (military) · Investment goods · Labour economics · Macroeconomics · Market economy · Production (economics) · Technological change · Wage share · Welfare · Economic Growth and Productivity · Economic theories and models · Economic Theory and Policy
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Employment Protection Deregulation and Labor Shares in Advanced Economies
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Performance and Progress
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Are your labor shares set in Beijing? The view through the lens of global value chains
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Housing Provident Fund, risk attitude, and household financial investment engagement
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Demographic change, secular stagnation, and inequality
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Explaining the decline of China's labor share
Decoupling of functional and household income distribution by economic growth
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Overview
The Decline in Rent Sharing
Economic Outcomes of Strikers in an Era of Weak Unions
Secular Stagnation and Income Distribution Dynamics
Intellectual Monopoly and Income Inequality in the United States, 1948–2021
Financial globalisation and the labour share in developing countries
The impact of automation on labour market outcomes in emerging countries
From Trade to Tensions
Digital Imports and Firm‐Level Employment
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Risque d'entreprise et part du travail
Does a revenue-neutral shift from indirect to direct taxes reduce inequality? Evidence from high-income OECD countries
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Accounting for Cross‐Country Differences in Output Per Worker
Industrial Relations, Collective Bargaining Agreements, Labour Demand Composition and Local Labour Market Concentration
The half life of economic injustice
High-tech clusters, labor demand, and inequality
Does the urban wage premium imply a higher firms’ labor share in big cities
Capital-skill complementarity and regional inequality
Government policy and land price dynamics
Directed Technical Change
Capital-skill Complementarity and Inequality
Labor- and Capital-Augmenting Technical Change
Macroeconomic Effects of Regulation and Deregulation in Goods and Labor Markets
Getting Income Shares Right
The Dynamic Effects of Neutral and Investment‐Specific Technology Shocks
Privatization and the Decline of Labour's Share
A Model of Economic Growth
| Unique citing works | 239 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 17,07 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2026 (15) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 218 |