IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kof/anskof/v8y2014i1p79-89.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Der Sonderfall Schweiz: Verlauf und Bestimmungs faktoren der Lohnquote in der Schweiz, 1980– 2012

Author

Abstract

This paper shows that Switzerland is an exception concerning the labour share of national income: it is one of the very few developed countries which, since 1980, display an increasing labour share. Based on evidence from Swiss firms, this study examines the reasons for the persistence of Switzerland’s labour share. We provide four explanations: i) no structural shifts towards industries with below-average labor shares as observed in other developed countries; ii) a slow rate of technical progress; iii) enduring labour shortages; and iv) a comparatively skilled workforce. However, extrapolations extending observed trends in the determinants of the labour share until 2020 indicate that Switzerland’s labour share might decline in the years to come.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Graff & Michael Siegenthaler, 2014. "Der Sonderfall Schweiz: Verlauf und Bestimmungs faktoren der Lohnquote in der Schweiz, 1980– 2012," KOF Analysen, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, vol. 8(1), pages 79-89, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kof:anskof:v:8:y:2014:i:1:p:79-89
    DOI: 10.3929/ethz-a-005427569
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-005427569
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.3929/ethz-a-005427569?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bentolila Samuel & Saint-Paul Gilles, 2003. "Explaining Movements in the Labor Share," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-33, October.
    2. Olivier Blanchard & Francesco Giavazzi, 2003. "Macroeconomic Effects of Regulation and Deregulation in Goods and Labor Markets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 879-907.
    3. Brent Neiman, 2014. "The Global Decline of the Labor Share," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(1), pages 61-103.
    4. Acemoglu, Daron & Autor, David, 2011. "Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 12, pages 1043-1171, Elsevier.
    5. Alain Serres & Stefano Scarpetta & Christine Maisonneuve, 2001. "Falling Wage Shares in Europe and the United States: How Important is Aggregation Bias?," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 375-401, December.
    6. Michael Siegenthaler & Tobias Stucki, 2014. "Dividing the Pie: The Determinants of Labor's Share of Income on the Firm Level," KOF Working papers 14-352, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    7. repec:oup:qjecon:v:129:y:2013:i:1:p:61-103 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Siegenthaler Michael & Graff Michael & Mannino Massimo, 2016. "Characteristics and Drivers of the Swiss “Job Miracle”," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 67(1), pages 53-89, May.
    2. Michael Graff & Massimo Mannino & Michael Siegenthaler, 2014. "The Swiss "Job Miracle"," KOF Working papers 14-368, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.

    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. Michael Siegenthaler & Tobias Stucki, 2014. "Dividing the Pie: The Determinants of Labor's Share of Income on the Firm Level," KOF Working papers 14-352, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    2. Paul, Saumik, 2018. "Capital Skill Substitutability and the Labor Income Share: Identification Using the Morishima Elasticity of Substitution," ADBI Working Papers 839, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    3. Francesco Bloise & Irene Brunetti & Valeria Cirillo, 2022. "Firm strategies and distributional dynamics: labour share in Italian medium-large firms," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(2), pages 623-655, July.
    4. Paul, Saumik, 2019. "A Decline in Labor's Share with Capital Accumulation and Complementary Factor Inputs: An Application of the Morishima Elasticity of Substitution," IZA Discussion Papers 12219, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Kyoji Fukao & Cristiano Perugini, 2021. "The Long‐Run Dynamics of the Labor Share in Japan," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 445-480, June.
    6. Matteo G. Richiardi & Luis Valenzuela, 2024. "Firm heterogeneity and the aggregate labour share," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 38(1), pages 66-101, March.
    7. repec:pra:mprapa:43050 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Roberto Torrini, 2015. "Labour, Profit and Housing Rent Shares in Italian GDP: Long-Run Trends and Recent Patterns," Politica economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 275-314.
    9. Paul Maarek & Elsa Orgiazzi, 2020. "Development and the Labor Share," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 34(1), pages 232-257.
    10. Yuki, Kazuhiro, 2012. "Mechanization, task assignment, and inequality," MPRA Paper 37754, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Guimarães, Luís & Mazeda Gil, Pedro, 2022. "Explaining the Labor Share: Automation Vs Labor Market Institutions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. repec:ces:ifofor:v:19:y:2018:i:2:p:44-54 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Lecca, Patrizio & Persyn, Damiaan & Sakkas, Stelios, 2023. "Capital-skill complementarity and regional inequality: A spatial general equilibrium analysis," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    14. Sébastien Bock, 2018. "Job Polarization and Unskilled Employment Losses in France," PSE Working Papers halshs-01513037, HAL.
    15. Alexander Guschanski & Özlem Onaran, 2018. "Determinants of the Wage Share: A Cross-country Comparison Using Sectoral Data," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 19(02), pages 44-54, July.
    16. Beqiraj, Elton & Fanti, Lucrezia & Zamparelli, Luca, 2019. "Sectoral composition of output and the wage share: The role of the service sector," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1-10.
    17. Alessandro Bellocchi & Giovanni Marin & Giuseppe Travaglini, 2021. "The Great Fall of Labor Share:Micro Determinants for EU Countries Over 2011-2019," Working Papers 2102, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2021.
    18. Kraft, Kornelius & Lammers, Alexander, 2021. "Bargaining Power and the Labor Share - a Structural Break Approach," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242342, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    19. Walter Paternesi Meloni & Antonella Stirati, 2023. "The decoupling between labour compensation and productivity in high‐income countries: Why is the nexus broken?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(2), pages 425-463, June.
    20. Igor Fedotenkov, 2016. "Labour Shares, Fertility and Longevity in an OLG model," Bank of Lithuania Working Paper Series 28, Bank of Lithuania.
    21. Adriana Grasso & Juan Passadore & Facundo Piguillem, 2020. "The Macroeconomics of Hedging Income Shares," EIEF Working Papers Series 2009, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF), revised May 2020.
    22. Jakub Mućk & Peter McAdam & Jakub Growiec, 2018. "Will The “True” Labor Share Stand Up? An Applied Survey On Labor Share Measures," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 961-984, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour share; functional income distribution; firm-level analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D33 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Factor Income Distribution
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

    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:kof:anskof:v:8:y:2014:i:1:p:79-89. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/koethch.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.