IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bcr/ensayo/v1y2014i70p47-81.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Fall of the Labor Income Share in Advanced Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Ángel Estrada

    (Banco de España)

  • Eva Valdeolivas

    (Banco de España)

Abstract

The share of labor income in GD P is a key determinant of very important economic variables, such as competitiveness, inflation, human capital accumulation, demand and income distribution. The simplest economic models predict that the share of labor income will fluctuate around a stable value of long-term equilibrium. However, in the past three decades there has been a downward trend in many countries, especially in developed countries. To identify the reasons behind this trend, it is necessary, first, to refine the measurement of this variable, taking into account, in particular the non-wage employment, the role played by non-market economy and the effect of sectoral reallocation of activity. Second, different theoretical explanations are contrasted, such as the effect of technological factors (factor complementarity between capital and skilled labor), international trade and changes in the regulation of product markets and labor, taking into account the cyclical position of the economy. This analysis reveals that technological factors appear to be key determinants of this trend, and that the share of labor income is procyclical, but is delayed by one year with respect to fluctuations in production.

Suggested Citation

  • Ángel Estrada & Eva Valdeolivas, 2014. "The Fall of the Labor Income Share in Advanced Economies," Ensayos Económicos, Central Bank of Argentina, Economic Research Department, vol. 1(70), pages 47-81, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bcr:ensayo:v:1:y:2014:i:70:p:47-81
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bcra.gov.ar/pdfs/investigaciones/70_Estrada.pdf
    File Function: Spanish version (versión en Español)
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olympia Bover, 2008. "The Spanish Survey of Household Finances (EFF): description and methods of the 2005 wave," Occasional Papers 0803, Banco de España.
    2. Olympia Bover, 2008. "Oversampling of the wealthy in the Spanish Survey of Household Finances (EFF)," IFC Bulletins chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), The IFC's contribution to the 56th ISI Session, Lisbon, August 2007, volume 28, pages 399-402, Bank for International Settlements.
    3. Sarai Criado & Adrian van Rixtel, 2008. "Structured finance and the financial turmoil of 2007-2008: and introductory overview," Occasional Papers 0808, Banco de España.
    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. Moutsopoulos, Michael & Pelagidis, Theodore, 2021. "Labor Taxation: Insights From The World Economic Forum Survey," MPRA Paper 110823, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Jeronim Capaldo, 2014. "The Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: European Disintegration, Unemployment and Instability," GDAE Working Papers 14-03, GDAE, Tufts University.
    3. Ignacio Hernando & Pedro del Río & Irene Pablos, 2015. "Adjustment and growth prospects in the developed economies," Economic Bulletin, Banco de España, issue MAR, pages 29-44, March.
    4. repec:bde:journl:v:03:y:2015:p:02 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Tangian, Andranik S., 2017. "Declining labor-labor exchange rates as a cause of inequality growth," Working Paper Series in Economics 104, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    6. Michael Elsby & Bart Hobijn & Ayseful Sahin, 2013. "The Decline of the U.S. Labor Share," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 44(2 (Fall)), pages 1-63.
    7. Amendola, Marco & Ciampa, Valerio & Germani, Lorenzo, 2024. "The distributional effects of labour market deregulation: Wage share and fixed-term contracts," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 328-338.

    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. Pablo Hernández de Cos & Juan Francisco Jimeno & Roberto Ramos, 2017. "The Spanish public pension system: current situation, challenges and reform alternatives," Occasional Papers 1701, Banco de España.
    2. Pilar Cuadrado & Enrique Moral-Benito, 2016. "Potential growth of the spanish economy," Occasional Papers 1603, Banco de España.
    3. Henrique S. Basso & James Costain, 2016. "Macroprudential theory: advances and challenges," Occasional Papers 1604, Banco de España.
    4. Samuel Hurtado & Pablo Manzano & Eva Ortega & Alberto Urtasun, 2014. "Update and re-estimation of the quarterly model of Banco de España (MTBE)," Occasional Papers 1403, Banco de España.
    5. Pablo Hernández de Cos & Samuel Hurtado & Francisco Martí & Javier J. Pérez, 2016. "Public finances and inflation: the case of Spain," Occasional Papers 1606, Banco de España.
    6. Fernando López Vicente & José María Serena Garralda, 2014. "Macroeconomic policy in Brazil: inflation targeting, public debt structure and credit policies," Occasional Papers 1405, Banco de España.
    7. Galo Nuño & Cristina Pulido & Rubén Segura-Cayuela, 2012. "Long-run growth and demographic prospects in advanced economies," Occasional Papers 1206, Banco de España.
    8. Enrique Moral-Benito, 2018. "The microeconomic origins of the Spanish boom," Occasional Papers 1805, Banco de España.
    9. Ettore Dorrucci & Gabor Pula & Daniel Santabárbara, 2013. "China’s economic growth and rebalancing," Occasional Papers 1301, Banco de España.
    10. Pablo Hernández de Cos & Juan F. Jimeno, 2013. "Fiscal policy and external imbalances in a debt crisis: the Spanish case," Occasional Papers 1303, Banco de España.
    11. Olympia Bover & José María Casado & Esteban García-Miralles & Roberto Ramos & José María Labeaga, 2017. "Microsimulation tools for the evaluation of fiscal policy reforms at the Banco de España," Occasional Papers 1707, Banco de España.
    12. Juan Carlos Berganza, 2012. "Fiscal rules in Latin America: a survey," Occasional Papers 1208, Banco de España.
    13. Ana Arencibia Pareja & Samuel Hurtado & Mercedes de Luis López & Eva Ortega, 2017. "New version of the quarterly model of Banco de España (MTBE)," Occasional Papers 1709, Banco de España.
    14. Pablo Hernández de Cos & David López Rodríguez & Javier J. Pérez, 2018. "The challenges of public deleveraging," Occasional Papers 1803, Banco de España.
    15. Kroeger, Frens, 2015. "The development, escalation and collapse of system trust: From the financial crisis to society at large," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 431-437.
    16. Nataliya Barasinska & Dorothea Sch fer, 2013. "Financial risk taking, gender and social identity - Evidence from national surveys of household finance," LWS Working papers 15, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    17. Marques, Manuel O. & Pinto, João M., 2020. "A comparative analysis of ex ante credit spreads: Structured finance versus straight debt finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    18. Abdulnasser Hatemi-J & Eduardo Roca, 2010. "The Impact of the US Real Estate Market on Other Major Markets During Normal and Crisis Periods," Discussion Papers in Finance finance:201003, Griffith University, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics.
    19. Carlos Madeira, 2019. "Computing population weights for the EFH survey," Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy), Central Bank of Chile, vol. 22(1), pages 004-026, April.
    20. Sarah Kuypers & Francesco Figari & Gerlinde Verbist & Dorien Verckist, 2017. "EWIGE - European Wealth data InteGration in EUROMOD," JRC Working Papers on Taxation & Structural Reforms 2017-04, Joint Research Centre.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    biased technological progress; business cycle; international trade; labor income share; skilled labor;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • F62 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Macroeconomic Impacts
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    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:bcr:ensayo:v:1:y:2014:i:70:p:47-81. 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: Federico Grillo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bcraaar.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.