IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-25-00088.html

Market power, input substitution and the labor share

Author

Listed:
  • Jing Hang

    (Sun Yat-sen University)

Abstract

An increase in the aggregate markup induces substitution of primary inputs for intermediate inputs, and substitution of labor for capital. Both effects lower the labor share if the inputs are complements. A reasonable calibration shows that a 4% increase in the markup lowers U.S. labor share by 7.5 percentage points, with input substitution accounting for about one third of the total impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Jing Hang, 2025. "Market power, input substitution and the labor share," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 45(2), pages 970-978.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-25-00088
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2025/Volume45/EB-25-V45-I2-P84.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Enghin Atalay, 2017. "How Important Are Sectoral Shocks?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 254-280, October.
    2. Ezra Oberfield & Gene M. Grossman, 2022. "The Elusive Explanation for the Declining Labor Share," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 93-124, August.
    3. David Rezza Baqaee & Emmanuel Farhi, 2020. "Productivity and Misallocation in General Equilibrium," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(1), pages 105-163.
    4. Laurence Ball & N Gregory Mankiw, 2023. "Market Power in Neoclassical Growth Models," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(2), pages 572-596.
    5. Bond, Steve & Hashemi, Arshia & Kaplan, Greg & Zoch, Piotr, 2021. "Some unpleasant markup arithmetic: Production function elasticities and their estimation from production data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 1-14.
    6. Ezra Oberfield & Devesh Raval, 2021. "Micro Data and Macro Technology," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(2), pages 703-732, March.
    7. Chu, Shiou-Yen, 2020. "A note on labor share, price markup and monetary policy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    8. Alessandra Peter & Cian Ruane, 2023. "The Aggregate Importance of Intermediate Input Substitutability," NBER Working Papers 31233, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Devesh Raval, 2023. "Testing the Production Approach to Markup Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(5), pages 2592-2611.
    10. Susanto Basu, 2019. "Are Price-Cost Markups Rising in the United States? A Discussion of the Evidence," NBER Working Papers 26057, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Jan De Loecker & Jan Eeckhout & Gabriel Unger, 2020. "The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications [“Econometric Tools for Analyzing Market Outcomes”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(2), pages 561-644.
    12. Susanto Basu, 2019. "Are Price-Cost Markups Rising in the United States? A Discussion of the Evidence," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(3), pages 3-22, Summer.
    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. Ugur, Mehmet, 2024. "Innovation, market power and the labour share: Evidence from OECD industries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    2. Chiara Bellucci & Armando Rungi, 2024. "Procompetitive effects of vertical takeovers. Evidence from the European Union," Papers 2411.12412, arXiv.org, revised May 2025.
    3. Thomas Hasenzagl & Luis Perez, 2023. "The Micro-Aggregated Profit Share," Papers 2309.12945, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    4. Maarten De Ridder, 2024. "Market Power and Innovation in the Intangible Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(1), pages 199-251, January.
    5. Conteduca, Francesco Paolo & Panon, Ludovic, 2024. "Natural Disasters and Markups," MPRA Paper 125324, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Ian Goldin & Pantelis Koutroumpis & François Lafond & Julian Winkler, 2024. "Why Is Productivity Slowing Down?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 196-268, March.
    7. Diane Coyle & John McHale & Ioannis Bournakis & Jen-Chung Mei, 2024. "Converging to Mediocrity: Trends in Firm-Level Markups in the United Kingdom 2008-2019," Working Papers 047, The Productivity Institute.
    8. Joachim Hubmer, 2023. "The Race Between Preferences and Technology," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(1), pages 227-261, January.
    9. Agustin Velasquez, 2023. "Production Technology, Market Power, and the Decline of the Labor Share," IMF Working Papers 2023/032, International Monetary Fund.
    10. Shanks, Olga, 2024. "Increasing returns to scale and markups," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 257-267.
    11. Amaresh K Tiwari, 2023. "Automation In An Open, Catching-Up Economy: Aggregate And Microeconometric Evidence," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series 144, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).
    12. David Staines, 2023. "Stochastic Equilibrium the Lucas Critique and Keynesian Economics," Papers 2312.16214, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    13. Panon, Ludovic, 2022. "Labor share, foreign demand and superstar exporters," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    14. Joe Piacentini & Harley Frazis & Peter B. Meyer & Michael Schultz & Leo Sveikauskas, 2022. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Labor Markets and Inequality," Economic Working Papers 551, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    15. Wang, Yunfei & Li, Jinke & O'Leary, Nigel & Shao, Jing, 2024. "Banding: A game changer in the Renewables Obligation scheme in the United Kingdom," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    16. Berkowitz, Daniel & Nishioka, Shuichiro, 2024. "The growth of firms, markets and rents: Evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 383-399.
    17. Savagar, Anthony, 2021. "Measured productivity with endogenous markups and economic profits," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    18. Duran-Micco, Elisa & Perloff, Jeffrey M., 2022. "How large are double markups?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    19. Sophie Osotimehin & Latchezar Popov, 2023. "Misallocation and Intersectoral linkages," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 177-198, December.
    20. Shuichiro Nishioka & Mari Tanaka, 2022. "The Scope of Variable Inputs and Markup Estimates," Working Papers 23-01, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-25-00088. 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.