IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aerins/v2y2020i3p321-38.html

Revisiting the Global Decline of the (Non-housing) Labor Share

Author

Listed:
  • Germán Gutiérrez
  • Sophie Piton

Abstract

We show that cross-country comparisons of corporate labor shares are affected by differences in the delineation of corporate sectors. While the United States excludes all self-employed and most dwellings from the corporate sector, other countries include large amounts of both—biasing labor shares downward. We propose two methods to control for these differences and obtain "harmonized" non-housing labor share series. Contrary to common wisdom, the harmonized series remain stable or increase in all major advanced economies except the United States and Canada. These new facts cast doubts on most technological explanations for the decline of the labor share.

Suggested Citation

  • Germán Gutiérrez & Sophie Piton, 2020. "Revisiting the Global Decline of the (Non-housing) Labor Share," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 321-338, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aerins:v:2:y:2020:i:3:p:321-38
    DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20190285
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aeri.20190285
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E115761V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aeri.20190285.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aeri.20190285.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aeri.20190285?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • E26 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Informal Economy; Underground Economy
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • P23 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Factor and Product Markets; Industry Studies; Population
    • P36 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training; Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Revisiting the Global Decline of the (Non-Housing) Labor Share (AER: Insights 2020) in ReplicationWiki

    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:aea:aerins:v:2:y:2020:i:3:p:321-38. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    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.