IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/imfecr/v69y2021i3d10.1057_s41308-021-00144-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Infrastructure Investment and Labor Monopsony Power

Author

Listed:
  • Wyatt J. Brooks

    (Arizona State University)

  • Joseph P. Kaboski

    (University of Notre Dame, CEPR, and NBER)

  • Illenin O. Kondo

    (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis)

  • Yao Amber Li

    (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

  • Wei Qian

    (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics)

Abstract

In this paper, we study whether or not transportation infrastructure disrupts local monopsony power in labor markets using an expansion of the national highway system in India. Using panel data on manufacturing firms, we find that monopsony power in labor markets is reduced among firms near newly constructed highways relative to firms that remain far from highways. We estimate that the highways reduce labor markdowns significantly. We use changes in the composition of inputs to identify these effects separately from the reduction in output markups that occurs simultaneously. The impacts of highway construction are therefore pro-competitive in both output and input markets and act to increase the share of income that labor receives by 1.8–2.3 percentage points.

Suggested Citation

  • Wyatt J. Brooks & Joseph P. Kaboski & Illenin O. Kondo & Yao Amber Li & Wei Qian, 2021. "Infrastructure Investment and Labor Monopsony Power," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 69(3), pages 470-504, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:imfecr:v:69:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1057_s41308-021-00144-6
    DOI: 10.1057/s41308-021-00144-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41308-021-00144-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41308-021-00144-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Card & Ana Rute Cardoso & Joerg Heining & Patrick Kline, 2018. "Firms and Labor Market Inequality: Evidence and Some Theory," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S1), pages 13-70.
    2. Dave Donaldson, 2018. "Railroads of the Raj: Estimating the Impact of Transportation Infrastructure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 899-934, April.
    3. Jan De Loecker & Frederic Warzynski, 2012. "Markups and Firm-Level Export Status," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2437-2471, October.
    4. Thibaut Lamadon & Magne Mogstad & Bradley Setzler, 2022. "Imperfect Competition, Compensating Differentials, and Rent Sharing in the US Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(1), pages 169-212, January.
    5. Sam Asher & Paul Novosad, 2020. "Rural Roads and Local Economic Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(3), pages 797-823, March.
    6. Jose Asturias & Manuel García-Santana & Roberto Ramos, 2019. "Competition and the Welfare Gains from Transportation Infrastructure: Evidence from the Golden Quadrilateral of India," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(6), pages 1881-1940.
    7. Treb Allen & Costas Arkolakis, 2014. "Trade and the Topography of the Spatial Economy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(3), pages 1085-1140.
    8. Simon Alder & Illenin Kondo, 2018. "Political Distortions and Infrastructure Networks in China: A Quantitative Spatial Equilibrium Analysis," 2018 Meeting Papers 1269, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    9. Brooks, Wyatt J. & Kaboski, Joseph P. & Li, Yao Amber & Qian, Wei, 2021. "Exploitation of labor? Classical monopsony power and labor's share," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    10. David Berger & Kyle Herkenhoff & Simon Mongey, 2022. "Labor Market Power," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(4), pages 1147-1193, April.
    11. Amit Gandhi & Salvador Navarro & David A. Rivers, 2020. "On the Identification of Gross Output Production Functions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(8), pages 2973-3016.
    12. Benjamin Faber, 2014. "Trade Integration, Market Size, and Industrialization: Evidence from China's National Trunk Highway System," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(3), pages 1046-1070.
    13. Braverman, Avishay & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1986. "Landlords, tenants and technological innovations," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 313-332, October.
    14. Braverman, Avishay & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1982. "Sharecropping and the Interlinking of Agrarian Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(4), pages 695-715, September.
    15. Lorenzo Caliendo & Maximiliano Dvorkin & Fernando Parro, 2019. "Trade and Labor Market Dynamics: General Equilibrium Analysis of the China Trade Shock," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(3), pages 741-835, May.
    16. Wyatt Brooks & Kevin Donovan, 2020. "Eliminating Uncertainty in Market Access: The Impact of New Bridges in Rural Nicaragua," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(5), pages 1965-1997, September.
    17. Emilien Gouin-Bonenfant, 2018. "Productivity Dispersion, Between-firm Competition and the Labor Share," 2018 Meeting Papers 1171, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pérez, Jorge & Vial, Felipe & Zárate, Román, 2022. "Urban Transit Infrastructure: Spatial Mismatch and Labor Market Power," Research Department working papers 1992, CAF Development Bank Of Latinamerica.
    2. Bossavie, Laurent & Cho, Yoonyoung & Heath, Rachel, 2023. "The effects of international scrutiny on manufacturing workers: Evidence from the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    3. Passmore, Reid & Watkins, Kari E. & Guensler, Randall, 2021. "BikewaySim Technology Transfer: City of Atlanta, Georgia," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt23n9389j, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    4. Alejandro Estefan & Roberto Gerhard & Joseph P. Kaboski & Illenin O. Kondo & Wei Qian, 2024. "Outsourcing Policy and Worker Outcomes: Causal Evidence from a Mexican Ban," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 084, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    5. Chau, Nancy H. & Kanbur, Ravi & Soundararajan, Vidhya, 2022. "Employer Power and Employment in Developing Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 15514, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Chen Yeh & Claudia Macaluso & Brad Hershbein, 2022. "Monopsony in the US Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(7), pages 2099-2138, July.
    7. Schiavone, Ansel, 2023. "Labor market concentration and labor share dynamics for US regional industries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brooks, Wyatt J. & Kaboski, Joseph P. & Li, Yao Amber & Qian, Wei, 2021. "Exploitation of labor? Classical monopsony power and labor's share," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. Mertens, Matthias, 2021. "Labour market power and between-firm wage (in)equality," IWH Discussion Papers 13/2020, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), revised 2021.
    3. Santamaria, Marta, 2020. "Reshaping Infrastructure: Evidence from the division of Germany," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1244, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    4. Wu, Mingqin & Yu, Linhui & Zhang, Junsen, 2023. "Road expansion, allocative efficiency, and pro-competitive effect of transport infrastructure: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    5. Van Leemput, Eva, 2021. "A passage to India: Quantifying internal and external barriers to trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    6. Santamaria, Marta, 2020. "Reshaping Infrastructure : Evidence from the division of Germany," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 456, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    7. Pablo D. Fajgelbaum & Edouard Schaal, 2020. "Optimal Transport Networks in Spatial Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(4), pages 1411-1452, July.
    8. Chen Yeh & Claudia Macaluso & Brad Hershbein, 2022. "Monopsony in the US Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(7), pages 2099-2138, July.
    9. Kory Kroft & Yao Luo & Magne Mogstad & Bradley Setzler, 2020. "Imperfect Competition and Rents in Labor and Product Markets: The Case of the Construction Industry," NBER Working Papers 27325, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Li, Bingjing & Ma, Lin, 2022. "JUE insight: Migration, transportation infrastructure, and the spatial transmission of COVID-19 in China," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    11. Hayakawa, Kazunobu & Keola, Souknilanh & Sudsawasd, Sasatra & Yamanouchi, Kenta, 2022. "Impacts of an international bridge on households: Evidence from Thailand," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    12. Branco, Catarina & Dohse, Dirk C. & Pereira dos Santos, João & Tavares, José, 2023. "Nobody’s gonna slow me down? The effects of a transportation cost shock on firm performance and behavior," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 273314, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    13. Luke Heath Milsom, 2023. "Moving OpportunityLocal Connectivity and Spatial Inequality," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 2303, CEPREMAP.
    14. He, Guojun & Xie, Yang & Zhang, Bing, 2020. "Expressways, GDP, and the environment: The case of China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    15. Lebrand,Mathilde Sylvie Maria, 2022. "Infrastructure and Structural Change in the Lake Chad Region," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9899, The World Bank.
    16. Mertens, Matthias, 2022. "Micro-mechanisms behind declining labor shares: Rising market power and changing modes of production," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    17. Bartkus, Viva Ona & Brooks, Wyatt & Kaboski, Joseph P. & Pelnik, Carolyn, 2022. "Big fish in thin markets: Competing with the middlemen to increase market access in the Amazon," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    18. Egger, Peter H. & Loumeau, Gabriel & Loumeau, Nicole, 2023. "China's dazzling transport-infrastructure growth: Measurement and effects," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    19. Dan Liu & Liugang Sheng & Miaojie Yu, 2023. "Highways and firms' exports: Evidence from China," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 413-443, May.
    20. Chaurey, Ritam & Le, Duong Trung, 2022. "Infrastructure maintenance and rural economic activity: Evidence from India," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General
    • J42 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Monopsony; Segmented Labor Markets
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:imfecr:v:69:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1057_s41308-021-00144-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.