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Panel Data Estimates of the Production Function and Product and Labor Market Imperfections

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Author Info
Sabien Dobbelaere () (VU University Amsterdam)
Jacques Mairesse (CREST, Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques (INSEE), Merit, Maastricht University, and NBER)

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Abstract

Embedding the efficient bargaining model into the R. Hall (1988) approach for estimating price-cost margins shows that both imperfections in the product and labor markets generate a wedge between factor elasticities in the production function and their corresponding shares in revenue. This article investigates these two sources of discrepancies both at the industry level and the firm level using an unbalanced panel of 10646 French firms in 38 manufacturing industries over the period 1978-2001. By estimating standard production functions and comparing the estimated factor elasticities for labor and materials and their shares in revenue, we are able to derive estimates of average price-cost mark-up and extent of rent sharing parameters. For manufacturing as a whole, our estimates of these parameters are of an order of magnitude of 1.17 and 0.44 respectively. Our industry-level results indicate that industry differences in these parameters and in the underlying estimated factor elasticities and shares are quite sizeable. Since firm production function, behavior and market environment are very likely to vary even within industries, we also investigate firm-level heterogeneity in estimated mark-up and rent-sharing parameters. To determine the degree of true heterogeneity in these parameters, we adopt the P.A. Swamy (1970) methodology ailowing to correct the observed variance in the firm-level estimates from their sampling variance. The median of the firm estimates of the price-cost mark-up ignoring labor market imperfections is of 1.10, while as expected it is higher of 1.20 when taking them into account and the median of the corresponding firm estimates of the extent of rent sharing is of 0.62. The Swamy corresponding robust estimates of true dispersion are of about 0.18, 0.37 and 0.35, showing indeed very sizeable within-industry firm heterogeneity. We find that firm size, capital intensity, distance to the industry technology frontier and investing in R&D seem to account for a significant part of this heterogeneity.

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Paper provided by Tinbergen Institute in its series Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers with number 09-001/3.

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Date of creation: 07 Jan 2009
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Handle: RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20090001

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Related research
Keywords: Rent sharing; price-cost mark-ups; production function; panel data;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data
D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior
J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Hervé Boulhol & Sabien Dobbelaere & Sara Maioli, 2009. "Imports as Product and Labour Market Discipline," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-002/3, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Manuel Arellano & Stéphane Bonhomme, 2009. "Identifying distributional characteristics in random coefficients panel data models," CeMMAP working papers CWP22/09, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Flora Bellone & Patrick Musso & Lionel Nesta & Frédéric Warzynski, 2008. "L’effet pro-concurrentiel de l’intégration européenne : une analyse de l’évolution des taux de marge dans les industries manufacturières françaises," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2008-09, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Filip Abraham & Jozef Konings & Stijn Vanormelingen, 2009. "The effect of globalization on union bargaining and price-cost margins of firms," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 13-36, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Ángel Estrada, 2009. "The mark-ups in the Spanish economy: international comparison and recent evolution," Banco de España Working Papers 0905, Banco de España. [Downloadable!]
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