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Labor Shares and Income Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Loukas Karabarbounis

    (University of Chicago)

  • Brent Neiman

    (University of Chicago)

  • Jonathan Adams

    (University of Chicago)

Abstract

The share of aggregate income paid as compensation to labor is frequently used as a proxy for income inequality. If capital holdings are very concentrated among high income individuals, increasing their share of GDP, all else equal, widens the gap with poorer workers. Indeed, two striking features over the last three decades of many advanced and developing economies are the declining labor shares in income and the rise in income inequality. The relationship between factor shares and inequality, however, is not so simple in a richer world with realistic features such as endogenous portfolio decisions and capital-skill complementarity. In such a world, total inequality will change with (i) the labor share, (ii) the amount of within-labor and within-capital income inequality, and (iii) the degree to which the highest wage earners are also those earning the highest capital incomes. Macroeconomic trends and shocks that impact any one of these three moments are likely to impact simultaneously all of them. We develop a framework where all these terms are jointly determined and estimate the model to clarify the roles of changing technology, policies, and factor proportions on labor shares and total income inequality around the globe.

Suggested Citation

  • Loukas Karabarbounis & Brent Neiman & Jonathan Adams, 2014. "Labor Shares and Income Inequality," 2014 Meeting Papers 539, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  • Handle: RePEc:red:sed014:539
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Andrea, Colciago & Rajssa, Mechelli, 2019. "Competition and Inequality: Aiyagari meets Bertrand and Cournot," Working Papers 398, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2019.
    2. Andrea Colciago & Rajssa Mechelli, 2020. "Competition and Inequality," Working Papers 689, DNB.
    3. Anelí Bongers & Benedetto Molinari & José L. Torres, 2021. "Labor share and income distribution: Size of the cake or the cake portion?," Working Paper series 21-06, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    4. Cazzuffi, Chiara & Pereira-López, Mariana & Rosales, Irving & Soloaga, Isidro, 2023. "Monopsony Power and Labor Income Inequality in Mexico," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13044, Inter-American Development Bank.
    5. Aneli Bongers, 2021. "Economic growth and the functional distribution of income: A labor share Kuznets curve," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(1), pages 192-200.
    6. Raihan, Selim, 2021. "Functional Income Distribution and Inequality in the Asia-Pacific Countries," MPRA Paper 110469, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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