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Accounting for the Self-Employed in Labour Share Estimates: The Case of the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Rebecca Ann Freeman

    (OECD)

Abstract

The imputation of the labour income of the self-employed typically relies upon the assumption that individuals of this group earn the same average hourly compensation as employees, either at the total economy or industry level. While this assumption is convenient in that it relies upon readily available information on the composition of the labour force and on the compensation of employees, it nevertheless remains somewhat simplistic and thus questionable in its validity. This shortcoming is addressed here by investigating a more refined method to impute the labour income of the self-employed in the United States. Imputations are based on the assumption that the labour income of the self-employed equals the average earnings of employees of the same sex and within the same age group, working in the same industry and having the same level of education. The proposed estimation of the labour income of the self-employed is followed by an analysis of how adjusted total labour income might impact the value of the labour share of output. Results for the United States show that applying this alternative methodology leads to a 2.5 percentage point rise in labour shares of output at the total economy level, led by larger increases of this indicator in sectors such as agriculture and hunting as well as professional, business and other service industries. The time profile in recent years, i.e. 2003-2009, of the labour share of output remains nevertheless unchanged when applying the proposed adjustment methodology.

Suggested Citation

  • Rebecca Ann Freeman, 2011. "Accounting for the Self-Employed in Labour Share Estimates: The Case of the United States," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2011/4, OECD Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:oec:stiaaa:2011/4-en
    DOI: 10.1787/5kg0w877vlwg-en
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    Cited by:

    1. Mathieu Dufour & Ellen Russell, 2015. "Why Isn't Productivity More Popular? A Bargaining Power Approach to the Pay/Productivity Linkage in Canada," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 28, pages 47-62, Spring.
    2. Marta Guerriero, 2019. "The Labor Share of Income Around the World: Evidence from a Panel Dataset," ADB Institute Series on Development Economics, in: Gary Fields & Saumik Paul (ed.), Labor Income Share in Asia, chapter 0, pages 39-79, Springer.
    3. Bengtsson, Erik & Waldenström, Daniel, 2018. "Capital Shares and Income Inequality: Evidence from the Long Run," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(3), pages 712-743, September.
    4. Erik Bengtsson, 2014. "Labour's share in twentieth-century Sweden: a reinterpretation," Scandinavian Economic History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(3), pages 290-314, November.
    5. Lynn Riggs & Isabelle Sin & Dean Hyslop, 2019. "Measuring the “gig” economy: Challenges and options," Working Papers 19_18, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    6. Paul, Saumik & Thomas, Liam, 2020. "The Agricultural Productivity Gap and Self-Employment Bias in the Labor Income Share," IZA Discussion Papers 13415, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2018. "Three Essays On Financial Integration And Trade Liberalization," OSF Preprints hfrdq, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ASEC Supplement; labour income; labour share of output; Self-employed; US Current Population Survey (CPS); wage share;
    All these keywords.

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