IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-01519191.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Monopsony Theory Revisited

Author

Listed:
  • Xavier Méra

    (GRANEM - Groupe de Recherche Angevin en Economie et Management - UA - Université d'Angers - AGROCAMPUS OUEST - Institut National de l'Horticulture et du Paysage)

Abstract

Standard monopsony theory, old and new, lacks a realistic criterion to distinguish between monopsony and competitive prices. Consequently, prominent Austrian critics have by and large dismissed it. However, the idea that human action occurs in discrete steps, and consequently that the elasticity of the supply schedules for factors of production, as well as the elasticity of the demand schedules for their products, can be altered as a result of coercion, lead to a theory of "monopoly price-gap", with monopoly and monopsony prices as two features of the same phenomenon.

Suggested Citation

  • Xavier Méra, 2017. "Monopsony Theory Revisited," Post-Print halshs-01519191, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01519191
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01519191v2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01519191v2/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blair,Roger D. & Harrison,Jeffrey L., 2010. "Monopsony in Law and Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521746083.
    2. Blair,Roger D. & Harrison,Jeffrey L., 2010. "Monopsony in Law and Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521762304.
    3. William M. Boal & Michael R. Ransom, 1997. "Monopsony in the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 86-112, March.
    4. Peter Kuhn, 2004. "Is monopsony the right way to model labor markets? a review of Alan Manning's monopsony in motion," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 369-378.
    5. Orley C. Ashenfelter & Henry Farber & Michael R Ransom, 2010. "Labor Market Monopsony," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 203-210, April.
    6. Burdett, Kenneth & Mortensen, Dale T, 1998. "Wage Differentials, Employer Size, and Unemployment," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(2), pages 257-273, May.
    7. Demsetz, Harold, 1969. "Information and Efficiency: Another Viewpoint," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, April.
    8. Joan Robinson, 1969. "The Economics of Imperfect Competition," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, edition 0, number 978-1-349-15320-6, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Michael R Ransom & Ronald L. Oaxaca, 2010. "New Market Power Models and Sex Differences in Pay," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 267-289, April.
    2. Michael R Ransom & David P. Sims, 2010. "Estimating the Firm's Labor Supply Curve in a "New Monopsony" Framework: Schoolteachers in Missouri," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 331-355, April.
    3. 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.
    4. David Berger & Kyle Herkenhoff & Simon Mongey, 2022. "Labor Market Power," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(4), pages 1147-1193, April.
    5. Michael R. Ransom & David P. Sims, 2008. "Estimating the Firm's Labor Supply Curve in a "New Monopsony" Framework: School Teachers in Missouri," Working Papers 1108, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    6. Michael R. Ransom & Ronald L. Oaxaca, 2008. "New Market Power Models and Sex Differences in Pay," Working Papers 1110, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    7. Hirsch, Boris & Jahn, Elke J. & Schnabel, Claus, 2013. "The cyclical behaviour of employers' monopsony power and workers' wages," Discussion Papers 89, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    8. Gibson, Matthew, 2021. "Employer Market Power in Silicon Valley," IZA Discussion Papers 14843, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Pham, Hoang, 2023. "Trade reform, oligopsony, and labor market distortion: Theory and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    10. Ransom, Michael R. & Oaxaca, Ronald L., 2005. "Sex Differences in Pay in a "New Monopsony" Model of the Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 1870, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Roger D. Blair & Christina DePasquale, 2020. "Monopsony and two‐part tariffs," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(5), pages 730-734, July.
    12. Jeremy T. Fox, 2010. "Estimating the Employer Switching Costs and Wage Responses of Forward-Looking Engineers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 357-412, April.
    13. David VanHoose, 2013. "Implications of Shifting Retail Market Shares for Loan Monitoring in a Dominant-Bank Model," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 60(3), pages 291-316, July.
    14. Torberg Falch, 2010. "The Elasticity of Labor Supply at the Establishment Level," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 237-266, April.
    15. Tabasso, D, 2009. "Temporary Contracts and Monopsony Power in the UK Labour Market," Economics Discussion Papers 8938, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    16. Dobbelaere, Sabien & Kiyota, Kozo & Mairesse, Jacques, 2015. "Product and labor market imperfections and scale economies: Micro-evidence on France, Japan and the Netherlands," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 290-322.
    17. Gerard J. van den Berg, 2003. "Multiple Equilibria and Minimum Wages in Labor Markets with Informational Frictions and Heterogeneous Production Technologies," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(4), pages 1337-1357, November.
    18. Clémence Berson, 2016. "Local labor markets and taste-based discrimination," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-21, December.
    19. Benson, Alan, 2013. "Firm-sponsored general education and mobility frictions: Evidence from hospital sponsorship of nursing schools and faculty," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 149-159.
    20. Roger Blair & Perihan Saygin, 2021. "Uncertainty and the marginal revenue product–wage gap," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(3), pages 564-569, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Monopsony; monopoly;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hal:journl:halshs-01519191. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.