IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/col/000092/003779.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why labor income shares seem to be constant?

Author

Listed:
  • Hernando Zuleta

Abstract

The common assumptions that labor income share does not change over time or across countries and that factor income shares are equal to the elasticity of output with respect to factors have had important implications for economic theory. However, there are various theoretical reasons why the elasticity of output with respect to reproducible factors should be correlated with the stage of development. In particular, the behavior of international trade and capital flows and the existence of factor saving innovations imply such a correlation. If this correlation exists and if factor income shares are equal to the elasticity of output with respect to factors then the labor income share must be negatively correlated with the stage of development. We propose an explanation for why labor income share has no correlation with income per capita: the existence of a labor intensive sector which produces non tradable goods.

Suggested Citation

  • Hernando Zuleta, 2007. "Why labor income shares seem to be constant?," Documentos de Trabajo 3779, Universidad del Rosario.
    • Handle: RePEc:col:000092:003779
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repository.urosario.edu.co/bitstream/handle/10336/10853/3779.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boldrin, Michele & Levine, David K., 2002. "Factor Saving Innovation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 18-41, July.
    2. Alan Krueger, 1999. "Measuring Labor's Share," Working Papers 792, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    3. Alan B. Krueger, 1999. "Measuring Labor's Share," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 45-51, May.
    4. Gary D. Hansen & Edward C. Prescott, 2002. "Malthus to Solow," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 1205-1217, September.
    5. Douglas Gollin, 2002. "Getting Income Shares Right," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(2), pages 458-474, April.
    6. F. A. Lutz, 1961. "The Theory of Capital," International Economic Association Series, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-08452-4 edited by D. C. Hague.
    7. Hernando Zuleta, 2008. "Factor Saving Innovations and Factor Income Shares," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 11(4), pages 836-851, October.
    8. Nicholas Kaldor, 1961. "Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth," International Economic Association Series, in: D. C. Hague (ed.), The Theory of Capital, chapter 0, pages 177-222, Palgrave Macmillan.
    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. Alberto Alesina & Michele Battisti & Joseph Zeira, 2018. "Technology and labor regulations: theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 41-78, March.
    2. Zuleta, Hernando, 2009. "If factor shares are not constant then we have a measurment problem. can we solve it?," Documentos de Trabajo 5744, Universidad del Rosario.
    3. Carolina Arteaga Cabrales, 2011. "Human Capital Externalities and Growth," Revista ESPE - Ensayos Sobre Política Económica, Banco de la República, vol. 29(66), pages 12-47, December.
    4. Zeira, Joseph, 2005. "Machines as Engines of Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 5429, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Alberto Alesina & Joseph Zeira, 2006. "Technology and Labor Regulations," NBER Working Papers 12581, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Brad Sturgill, 2009. "Cross-country Variation in Factor Shares and its Implications for Development Accounting," Working Papers 09-07, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    7. repec:wvu:wpaper:10-01 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Ajit Karnik & Mala Lalvani, 2012. "Growth performance of Indian states," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 235-259, February.
    9. Zuleta, Hernando & Young, Andrew T., 2013. "Labor shares in a model of induced innovation," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 112-122.

    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. Sturgill, Brad, 2012. "The relationship between factor shares and economic development," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 1044-1062.
    2. Peretto, Pietro F. & Seater, John J., 2013. "Factor-eliminating technical change," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 459-473.
    3. Hernando Zuleta, 2007. "Biased technological change, human capital and factor shares," Documentos de Trabajo 4380, Universidad del Rosario.
    4. Growiec, Jakub & McAdam, Peter & Mućk, Jakub, 2018. "Endogenous labor share cycles: Theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 74-93.
    5. Brad Sturgill, 2009. "Cross-country Variation in Factor Shares and its Implications for Development Accounting," Working Papers 09-07, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    6. Hernando Zuleta, 2015. "Factor shares, inequality, and capital flows," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 82(2), pages 647-667, October.
    7. Hernando Zuleta, 2008. "Seasons, savings and GDP," Documentos de Trabajo 4592, Universidad del Rosario.
    8. Dawson, John W. & Sturgill, Brad, 2022. "Market Institutions and Factor Shares Across Countries," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 266-289.
    9. Zuleta, Hernando, 2009. "If factor shares are not constant then we have a measurment problem. can we solve it?," Documentos de Trabajo 5744, Universidad del Rosario.
    10. Sturgill, Brad, 2014. "Back to the basics: Revisiting the development accounting methodology," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 52-68.
    11. Hernando Zuleta, 2008. "Factor Saving Innovations and Factor Income Shares," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 11(4), pages 836-851, October.
    12. repec:wvu:wpaper:10-01 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Hernando Zuleta & Andrew T. Young, 2007. "Labor's shares - aggregate and industry: accounting for both in a model of unbalanced growth with induced innovation," Documentos de Trabajo 3105, Universidad del Rosario.
    14. Zuleta, Hernando & Young, Andrew T., 2013. "Labor shares in a model of induced innovation," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 112-122.
    15. Marta Guerriero, 2019. "The Labor Share of Income Around the World: Evidence from a Panel Dataset," ADB Institute Series on Development Economics, in: Gary Fields & Saumik Paul (ed.), Labor Income Share in Asia, chapter 0, pages 39-79, Springer.
    16. Hernando Zuleta & antiago Alberico, 2007. "Labor supply, biased technological change and economic growth," Revista ESPE - Ensayos Sobre Política Económica, Banco de la República, vol. 25(53), pages 260-286, January.
    17. Jones, C.I., 2016. "The Facts of Economic Growth," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 3-69, Elsevier.
    18. Zuleta, Hernando, 2012. "Variable factor shares, measurement and growth accounting," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 91-93.
    19. Ivan D. Trofimov, 2019. "Stability of Labour Shares: Evidence from OECD Economies," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 17(1), pages 57-89.
    20. Young, Andrew T., 2010. "One of the things we know that ain't so: Is US labor's share relatively stable?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 90-102, March.
    21. Giacomo Gabbuti, 2018. "Labour Shares and Income Inequality: Insights from Italian Economic History, 1895-2015," HHB Working Papers Series 13, The Historical Household Budgets Project.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Factor Income Shares; Elasticity of output with respect to factors; two sector model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E1 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models
    • F0 - International Economics - - General
    • O0 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - General
    • 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:col:000092:003779. 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: Facultad de Economía (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ferosco.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.