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The Rise of Pass-Throughs and the Decline of the Labor Share

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew Smith
  • Danny Yagan
  • Owen Zidar
  • Eric Zwick

Abstract

We study the coevolution of the fall in the US corporate-sector labor share and the rise of business activity in tax-preferred pass-throughs. We find that reallocating activity to the form it would have taken prior to the Tax Reform Act of 1986 accounts for one-third of the decline in the corporate-sector labor share between 1978 and 2017. Our adjustments are concentrated among mid-market firms in services, magnifying the role of the manufacturing sector and superstar firms in driving the remaining decline in the labor share. Our findings highlight the importance of tax policy when measuring factor shares.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew Smith & Danny Yagan & Owen Zidar & Eric Zwick, 2022. "The Rise of Pass-Throughs and the Decline of the Labor Share," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 323-340, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aerins:v:4:y:2022:i:3:p:323-40
    DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20210268
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrea L. Eisfeldt & Antonio Falato & Mindy Z. Xiaolan, 2023. "Human Capitalists," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(1), pages 1-61.
    2. Stefan Bach & Charlotte Bartels & Theresa Neef, 2025. "The Distribution of National Income in Germany, 1992-2019," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1227, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Alessandro Di Nola & Georgi Kocharkov & Almuth Scholl & Anna‐Mariia Tkhir & Haomin Wang, 2025. "Taxation Of Top Incomes And Tax Avoidance," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 66(3), pages 983-1018, August.
    4. Campbell, Richard Cole & Robbins, Jacob A., 2025. "The value of private business in the United States," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    5. Bellocchi, Alessandro & Marin, Giovanni & Travaglini, Giuseppe, 2023. "The labor share puzzle: Empirical evidence for European countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    6. Adela Luque & Vitaliy Novik, 2024. "Garage Entrepreneurs or just Self-Employed? An Investigation into Nonemployer Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 24-61, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    7. Sebastian Zalas & Hubert Drążkowski, 2023. "The Evolution of the Labour Share in Poland: New Evidence from Firm-Level Data," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 13-33.
    8. Andrew Atkeson & Jonathan Heathcote & Fabrizio Perri, 2025. "The End of Privilege: A Reexamination of the Net Foreign Asset Position of the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(7), pages 2151-2206, July.
    9. Amy Finkelstein & Casey McQuillan & Owen Zidar & Eric Zwick, 2023. "The Health Wedge and Labor Market Inequality," Working Papers 2023-01, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    10. Rolf Aaberge & Marco Francesconi & Jørgen Modalsli & Ola L. Vestad, 2024. "How Business Income Measures Affect Income Inequality and the Tax Burden," CESifo Working Paper Series 11496, CESifo.
    11. Catherine Laffineur & Maria Minniti & Benjamin Montmartin, 2023. "Does Knowledge in Management Foster Firm Creation and Performance?," GREDEG Working Papers 2023-19, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    12. Bilicka, Katarzyna & Raei, Sepideh, 2023. "Output distortions and the choice of legal form of organization," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    13. Stefan Bach & Charlotte Bartels & Theresa Neef, 2024. "The Distribution of National Income in Germany, 1992-2019," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2102, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    14. Francesco Furno, 2021. "The Macroeconomic Effects of Corporate Tax Reforms," Papers 2111.12799, arXiv.org.
    15. Qi Ye & Jie Yan, 2024. "The effect of service outsourcing on labor income share: Measuring labor income share from the global value chains perspective," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(9), pages 1-18, September.
    16. Ábrahám, Árpád & Gottardi, Piero & Hubmer, Joachim & Mayr, Lukas, 2023. "Tax wedges, financial frictions and misallocation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    17. Adhikari, Bibek & Alm, James & Harris, Timothy F., 2021. "Small business tax compliance under third-party reporting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    18. Del Carmen, Giselle & Garriga, Santiago & Ponce, Wilman & Scot, Thiago, 2025. "Two decades of top income shares in Honduras," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    19. Higo, Masahiro, 2023. "What caused the downward trend in Japan’s labor share?," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    20. Arrigoni, Simone, 2024. "Who gets the flow? Financial globalisation and wealth inequality," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    21. Zalas, Sebastian & Drążkowski, Hubert, . "Kształtowanie się udziału płac w wartości dodanej w Polsce. Nowe szacunki z danych jednostkowych," Gospodarka Narodowa-The Polish Journal of Economics, Szkoła Główna Handlowa w Warszawie / SGH Warsaw School of Economics, vol. 2023(3).
    22. Li, Jianqiang & Hu, Ailian & Chen, Wanyi & Fang, Shiyao, 2024. "Social security fee reduction, industrial robots, and labor income share," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • K34 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Tax Law
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General
    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General

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