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Wages and International Rent Sharing in Multinational Firms

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  • John W. Budd
  • Jozef Konings
  • Matthew J. Slaughter

Abstract

We use a unique firm-level panel data set of multinational parents and their foreign affiliates to analyze whether profits are shared across borders within multinational firms. Using both fixed-effects and generalized method-of-moments estimators, affiliate wage levels are estimated to respond to both affiliate and parent profitability. The elasticity of affiliate wages to parent profits per worker is approximately 0.03, which can explain over 20 percent of the observed variation in affiliate wages. These results reveal a previously ignored aspect of labor-market rent sharing. They also reveal an important micro-level linkage with potential macro-level implications. International rent sharing can transmit economic conditions across national borders, and can thereby provide an implicit cross-country risk-sharing mechanism.

Suggested Citation

  • John W. Budd & Jozef Konings & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2002. "Wages and International Rent Sharing in Multinational Firms," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 522, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    • Handle: RePEc:wdi:papers:2002-522
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wages; Profit Sharing; Multinational Firms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General

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