IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v55y2023i15p1713-1727.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labour market power and the quest for an optimal minimum wage: evidence from Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Mauro Caselli
  • Jasmine Mondolo
  • Stefano Schiavo

Abstract

This study investigates the recent trends in labour market power in Italy and assesses the impact of a potential minimum wage using a large sample of manufacturing firms. We show that, despite an average shift of labour market power from companies to workers, monopsony power is still widespread, especially in some sectors and regions. The introduction of a minimum wage would be beneficial to workers and the economy as it reduces the monopsony power of highly productive firms paying low wages; however, it may also have a negative impact, since firms with low wages and low labour productivity may react by reducing the number of their employees or even by exiting the market. Finally, we find that an optimal minimum wage, which minimizes the negative effect and maximizes the positive effect for the economy, ranges between 8.25 and 9.65 euro per hour.

Suggested Citation

  • Mauro Caselli & Jasmine Mondolo & Stefano Schiavo, 2023. "Labour market power and the quest for an optimal minimum wage: evidence from Italy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(15), pages 1713-1727, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:55:y:2023:i:15:p:1713-1727
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2022.2099523
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2022.2099523
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036846.2022.2099523?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mertens, Matthias, 2020. "Labor market power and the distorting effects of international trade," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Sabien Dobbelaere & Jacques Mairesse, 2013. "Panel data estimates of the production function and product and labor market imperfections," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 1-46, January.
    3. Dobbelaere, Sabien & Kiyota, Kozo, 2018. "Labor market imperfections, markups and productivity in multinationals and exporters," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 198-212.
    4. Jeffrey Clemens, 2021. "How Do Firms Respond to Minimum Wage Increases? Understanding the Relevance of Non-employment Margins," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 51-72, Winter.
    5. Clemens, Jeffrey & Wither, Michael, 2019. "The minimum wage and the Great Recession: Evidence of effects on the employment and income trajectories of low-skilled workers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 53-67.
    6. Alan Manning, 2021. "The Elusive Employment Effect of the Minimum Wage," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 3-26, Winter.
    7. Jan De Loecker & Frederic Warzynski, 2012. "Markups and Firm-Level Export Status," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2437-2471, October.
    8. Peter Harasztosi & Attila Lindner, 2019. "Who Pays for the Minimum Wage?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2693-2727, August.
    9. Mirko Draca & Stephen Machin & John Van Reenen, 2011. "Minimum Wages and Firm Profitability," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 129-151, January.
    10. Daniel A. Ackerberg & Kevin Caves & Garth Frazer, 2015. "Identification Properties of Recent Production Function Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 2411-2451, November.
    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. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    13. Amil Petrin & James Levinsohn, 2012. "Measuring aggregate productivity growth using plant-level data," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 43(4), pages 705-725, December.
    14. Caselli, Mauro & Nesta, Lionel & Schiavo, Stefano, 2021. "Imports and labour market imperfections: Firm-level evidence from France," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    15. Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 2009. "On estimating firm-level production functions using proxy variables to control for unobservables," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 112-114, September.
    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. Traverso, Silvio & Vatiero, Massimiliano & Zaninotto, Enrico, 2024. "Automation and flexible labor contracts: Firm-level evidence from Italy," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1425, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Dalmazzo, Alberto & Leombruni, Roberto & Razzolini, Tiziano, 2023. "Anticipation Effects of EU Accession on Immigrants' Labour Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 16614, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Gmeiner, Michael & Gmeiner, Robert, 2023. "Estimating the employment effect of the minimum wage through variation in compliance: evidence from five US states," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121277, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    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. Jasmine Mondolo, 2022. "Product and labour market imperfections in the Italian manufacturing sector: a firm-level analysis," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(3), pages 813-838, October.
    2. Caselli, Mauro & Nesta, Lionel & Schiavo, Stefano, 2021. "Imports and labour market imperfections: Firm-level evidence from France," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    3. Mertens, Matthias, 2019. "Micro-mechanisms behind declining labour shares: Market power, production processes, and global competition," IWH-CompNet Discussion Papers 3/2019, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    4. van Heuvelen, Gerrit Hugo & Bettendorf, Leon & Meijerink, Gerdien, 2021. "Markups in a dual labour market: The case of the Netherlands," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    5. Mondolo, Jasmine, 2021. "Macroeconomic dynamics and the role of market power. The case of Italy," MPRA Paper 110172, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Oct 2021.
    6. Stefano Schiavo & Lionel Nesta, 2017. "International Competition and Rent Sharing in French Manufacturing," DEM Working Papers 2017/07, Department of Economics and Management.
    7. Mertens, Matthias, 2023. "Labor Market Power and Between-Firm Wage (In)Equality," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Jasmine Mondolo, 2021. "Macroeconomic dynamics and the role of market power. The case of Italy," DEM Working Papers 2021/17, Department of Economics and Management.
    9. Mertens, Matthias & Mottironi, Bernardo, 2023. "Do larger firms exert more market power? Markups and markdowns along the size distribution," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121283, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Casacuberta, Carlos & Gandelman, Néstor, 2023. "Wage councils, product markups and wage markdowns: Evidence from Uruguay," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    11. Filippo Biondi & Sergio Inferrera & Matthias Mertens & Javier Miranda, 2023. "Declining Business Dynamism in Europe: The Role of Shocks, Market Power, and Technology," Jena Economics Research Papers 2023-011, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    12. Guerini, Mattia & Nesta, Lionel & Ragot, Xavier & Schiavo, Stefano, 2024. "Zombification of the economy? Assessing the effectiveness of French government support during COVID-19 lockdown," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 263-280.
    13. Dario Tortarolo & Roman D. Zarate, 2020. "Imperfect competition in product and labour markets. A quantitative analysis," Discussion Papers 2020-05, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    14. Philipp Meinen & Ana Cristina Soares, 2022. "Markups and Financial Shocks," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(647), pages 2471-2499.
    15. Eric Bartelsman & Sabien Dobbelaere & Alessandro Zona Mattioli, 2024. "Non-Compete Agreements, Tacit Knowledge and Market Imperfections," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 24-055/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    16. Okudaira, Hiroko & Takizawa, Miho & Yamanouchi, Kenta, 2019. "Minimum wage effects across heterogeneous markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 110-122.
    17. Thomas Hasenzagl & Luis Perez, 2023. "The Micro-Aggregated Profit Share," Papers 2309.12945, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    18. Caselli, Mauro & Schiavo, Stefano & Nesta, Lionel, 2018. "Markups and markdowns," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 104-107.
    19. Emanuele Forlani & Ralf Martin & Giordano Mion & Mirabelle Muûls, 2023. "Unraveling Firms: Demand, Productivity and Markups Heterogeneity," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(654), pages 2251-2302.
    20. R. Monin & M. Suarez Castillo, 2020. "Product switching, market power and distance to core competency," Documents de Travail de l'Insee - INSEE Working Papers g2020-06, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques.

    More about this item

    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:taf:applec:v:55:y:2023:i:15:p:1713-1727. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    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.