IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_11674.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Wage Setting in Multiproduct Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Jackie M.L. Chan
  • Michael Irlacher
  • Michael Koch
  • Luca Macedoni

Abstract

This paper reveals a new determinant of wage markdowns at the firm level, namely, the product scope. Using matched employer-employee data on Danish manufacturing firms, we document a negative elasticity between wages and firm scope, which is of a similar magnitude but opposite sign as the firm-size wage premium. We rationalize the wage discount using a theory where workers value the opportunity to switch product lines as an amenity. Multiproduct firms exercise their monopsony power to offer lower wages. Our findings have important implications for understanding labor market dynamics in times of rising concentration from the contribution of large multiproduct firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Jackie M.L. Chan & Michael Irlacher & Michael Koch & Luca Macedoni, 2025. "Wage Setting in Multiproduct Firms," CESifo Working Paper Series 11674, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11674
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp11674.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manning, Alan, 2003. "The real thin theory: monopsony in modern labour markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 105-131, April.
    2. Jan De Loecker & Pinelopi K. Goldberg & Amit K. Khandelwal & Nina Pavcnik, 2016. "Prices, Markups, and Trade Reform," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 445-510, March.
    3. José Azar & Ioana Marinescu, 2024. "Monopsony Power in the Labor Market: From Theory to Policy," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 16(1), pages 491-518, August.
    4. Jha, Priyaranjan & Rodriguez-Lopez, Antonio, 2021. "Monopsonistic labor markets and international trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    5. Lisandra Flach & Michael Irlacher, 2018. "Product versus Process: Innovation Strategies of Multiproduct Firms," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 236-277, February.
    6. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 1999. "Changing Inequality in Markets for Workplace Amenities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1085-1123.
    7. Emmanuel Dhyne & Amil Petrin & Valerie Smeets & Frederic Warzynski, 2022. "Theory for Extending Single-Product Production Function Estimation to Multi-Product Settings," NBER Working Papers 30784, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Brooks, Wyatt J. & Kaboski, Joseph P. & Li, Yao Amber & Qian, Wei, 2021. "Exploitation of labor? Classical monopsony power and labor's share," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    9. John M. Abowd & Francis Kramarz & David N. Margolis, 1999. "High Wage Workers and High Wage Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(2), pages 251-334, March.
    10. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    11. Sharon Traiberman, 2019. "Occupations and Import Competition: Evidence from Denmark," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(12), pages 4260-4301, December.
    12. José Azar & Ioana Marinescu & Marshall Steinbaum, 2022. "Labor Market Concentration," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(S), pages 167-199.
    13. Bernard, Andrew B. & Bradford Jensen, J., 1999. "Exceptional exporter performance: cause, effect, or both?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 1-25, February.
    14. William M. Boal & Michael R. Ransom, 1997. "Monopsony in the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 86-112, March.
    15. Elhanan Helpman & Oleg Itskhoki & Marc-Andreas Muendler & Stephen J. Redding, 2017. "Trade and Inequality: From Theory to Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(1), pages 357-405.
    16. Fieler, Ana Cecília & Harrison, Ann E., 2023. "Escaping import competition in China," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    17. Koch, Michael & Manuylov, Ilya, 2023. "Measuring the technological bias of robot adoption and its implications for the aggregate labor share," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(9).
    18. Charles Brown, 1980. "Equalizing Differences in the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(1), pages 113-134.
    19. Andrew B. Bernard & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2011. "Multiproduct Firms and Trade Liberalization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(3), pages 1271-1318.
    20. Thomas J. Kniesner & W. Kip Viscusi & Christopher Woock & James P. Ziliak, 2012. "The Value of a Statistical Life: Evidence from Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(1), pages 74-87, February.
    21. Freeman, Richard B, 1978. "Job Satisfaction as an Economic Variable," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(2), pages 135-141, May.
    22. Luca Macedoni & Rui Zhang & Frederic Warzynski, 2024. "Fight or Flight? How Do Firms Adapt Their Product Mix in Response to Demand and Competition," CESifo Working Paper Series 11144, CESifo.
    23. Mertens, Matthias, 2022. "Micro-mechanisms behind declining labor shares: Rising market power and changing modes of production," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    24. Xie, Enze & Xu, Mingzhi & Yu, Miaojie, 2024. "Trade liberalization, labor market power, and misallocation across firms: Evidence from China's WTO accession," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    25. Gaelan MacKenzie, 2021. "Trade and Market Power in Product and Labor Markets," Staff Working Papers 21-17, Bank of Canada.
    26. Carsten Eckel & Ina Charlotte Jäkel & Luca Macedoni & Raymond Riezman & Raymond G. Riezman, 2024. "Testing the Waters: How Firms Enter New Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 11340, CESifo.
    27. José A. Azar & Steven T. Berry & Ioana Marinescu, 2022. "Estimating Labor Market Power," NBER Working Papers 30365, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    28. Macedoni, Luca, 2022. "Large multiproduct exporters across rich and poor countries: Theory and evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    29. Alan Manning & Ted To, 2002. "Oligopsony and Monopsonistic Competition in Labor Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 155-174, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Jackie M.L. Chan & Michael Irlacher & Michael Koch & Luca Macedoni, 2025. "Wage Setting in Multiproduct Firms," Economics working papers 2025-02, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    2. Luca Macedoni, 2022. "Monopsonistic competition, trade, and the profit share," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(2), pages 488-515, April.
    3. Xie, Enze & Xu, Mingzhi & Yu, Miaojie, 2024. "Trade liberalization, labor market power, and misallocation across firms: Evidence from China's WTO accession," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    4. Popp, Martin, 2024. "Minimum Wages in Concentrated Labor Markets," IZA Discussion Papers 17357, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Matteo G. Richiardi & Luis Valenzuela, 2024. "Firm heterogeneity and the aggregate labour share," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 38(1), pages 66-101, March.
    6. David Berger & Kyle Herkenhoff & Simon Mongey, 2022. "Labor Market Power," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(4), pages 1147-1193, April.
    7. Mertens, Matthias, 2020. "Labor market power and the distorting effects of international trade," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    8. Mertens, Matthias, 2023. "Labor Market Power and Between-Firm Wage (In)Equality," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    9. Luca Macedoni & Rui Zhang & Frederic Warzynski, 2024. "Fight or Flight? How Do Firms Adapt Their Product Mix in Response to Demand and Competition," CESifo Working Paper Series 11144, CESifo.
    10. 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.
    11. Pham, Hoang, 2023. "Trade reform, oligopsony, and labor market distortion: Theory and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    12. Luca Macedoni & Vladimir Tyazhelnikov, 2024. "Oligopoly and oligopsony in international trade," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(2), pages 401-429, May.
    13. Kory Kroft & Yao Luo & Magne Mogstad & Bradley Setzler, 2020. "Imperfect Competition and Rents in Labor and Product Markets: The Case of the Construction Industry," NBER Working Papers 27325, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Geoffrey Barrows & Helene Ollivier, 2016. "Emission intensity and firm dynamics: reallocation, product mix, and technology in India," GRI Working Papers 245, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    15. A. Kerem Co?ar & Nezih Guner & James Tybout, 2016. "Firm Dynamics, Job Turnover, and Wage Distributions in an Open Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(3), pages 625-663, March.
    16. Thibaut Lamadon & Magne Mogstad & Bradley Setzler, 2022. "Imperfect Competition, Compensating Differentials, and Rent Sharing in the US Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(1), pages 169-212, January.
    17. Carlo Perroni & Davide Suverato, 2023. "Skills scarcity and export intensity," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(2), pages 719-757, May.
    18. Samiul Haque & Micheal S. Delgado, 2024. "Labor market monopsony power in the manufacturing sector of four Sub‐Saharan African countries," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 38(3), pages 331-349, September.
    19. Smeets, Valerie & Warzynski, Frederic, 2013. "Estimating productivity with multi-product firms, pricing heterogeneity and the role of international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 237-244.
    20. Félix, Sónia & Portugal, Pedro, 2016. "Labor Market Imperfections and the Firm's Wage Setting Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 10241, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    multiproduct firms; monopsony power; wages; amenities; labor share;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J42 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Monopsony; Segmented Labor Markets
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_11674. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.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.