IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/chb/bcchwp/892.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Labor Earnings Dispersion in Chile: Decomposition, Dynamics and the Role of Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Rosario Aldunate
  • Gabriela Contreras
  • Matías Tapia

Abstract

We use a matched employer-employee census of formal employment in Chile to characterize the distribution of formal labor earnings between 2005 and 2016. We decompose the overall dispersion in earnings across workers into between and within-firm components, and then use a two-way fixed effect model with no complementarities for individual earnings (the AKM model) to compare the contributions of firm and worker heterogeneity toward changes in dispersion. First, we find a decline in the dispersion of labor earnings throughout the decade, which is driven almost completely by a reduction in the variance of average earnings between firms. The dispersion of earnings within firms, which explain more than half of the overall dispersion and correlates strongly with productivity at the firm level, did not change. Second, AKM estimates show that systematic differences across workers explain the bulk of earning differences, and that the reduction in worker heterogeneity was the main driver towards a more compact earnings distribution, an effect that was complemented by weaker sorting patterns. Finally, although our results suggest that the AKM model provides a good first-order approximation to the labor earnings determination process, we use an alternative specification that allows for worker-firm complementarities. This estimation suggests a stronger role for sorting and an even weaker role for firms in explaining labor earnings differences in Chile.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosario Aldunate & Gabriela Contreras & Matías Tapia, 2020. "Labor Earnings Dispersion in Chile: Decomposition, Dynamics and the Role of Firms," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 892, Central Bank of Chile.
  • Handle: RePEc:chb:bcchwp:892
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bcentral.cl/documents/33528/133326/DTBC_892.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jae Song & David J Price & Fatih Guvenen & Nicholas Bloom & Till von Wachter, 2019. "Firming Up Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(1), pages 1-50.
    2. Stéphane Bonhomme & Kerstin Holzheu & Thibaut Lamadon & Elena Manresa & Magne Mogstad & Bradley Setzler, 2023. "How Much Should We Trust Estimates of Firm Effects and Worker Sorting?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(2), pages 291-322.
    3. David Card & Ana Rute Cardoso & Joerg Heining & Patrick Kline, 2018. "Firms and Labor Market Inequality: Evidence and Some Theory," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S1), pages 13-70.
    4. Niklas Engbom & Christian Moser, 2022. "Earnings Inequality and the Minimum Wage: Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(12), pages 3803-3847, December.
    5. Stéphane Bonhomme & Thibaut Lamadon & Elena Manresa, 2019. "A Distributional Framework for Matched Employer Employee Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(3), pages 699-739, May.
    6. Fortin, Nicole M. & Bell, Brian & Böhm, Michael, 2017. "Top earnings inequality and the gender pay gap: Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 107-123.
    7. Lorenzo Caliendo & Ferdinando Monte & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2015. "The Anatomy of French Production Hierarchies," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(4), pages 809-852.
    8. Oliver Denk, 2015. "Financial sector pay and labour income inequality: Evidence from Europe," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1225, OECD Publishing.
    9. David Card & Jörg Heining & Patrick Kline, 2013. "Workplace Heterogeneity and the Rise of West German Wage Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(3), pages 967-1015.
    10. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/312fvs95ub8ct80ng4em8fjifb is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Muñoz, Ercio & Rucci, Graciana & Saltiel, Fernando & Urzúa, Sergio, 2018. "Wage Inequality in Latin America: Learning from Matched Employer-Employee Data," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 9656, Inter-American Development Bank.
    12. Hoffmann, Eran B. & Malacrino, Davide, 2019. "Employment time and the cyclicality of earnings growth," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 160-171.
    13. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    14. Chaney, Thomas & Ossa, Ralph, 2013. "Market size, division of labor, and firm productivity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 177-180.
    15. Claudio, Sapelli, 2013. "Movilidad intrageneracional del ingreso en Chile," Estudios Públicos, Centro de Estudios Públicos, vol. 0(131), pages 1-35.
    16. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2003. "Income Inequality in the United States, 1913–1998," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 1-41.
    17. Francisco Parro & Loreto Reyes, 2017. "The rise and fall of income inequality in Chile," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 26(1), pages 1-31, December.
    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. Albagli, Elías & Chovar, Alejandra & Luttini, Emiliano & Madeira, Carlos & Naudon, Alberto & Tapia, Matias, 2023. "Labor market flows: Evidence for Chile using microdata from administrative tax records," Latin American Journal of Central Banking (previously Monetaria), Elsevier, vol. 4(4).

    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. Jose Garcia-Louzao & Alessandro Ruggieri, 2023. "Labor Market Competition and Inequality," Bank of Lithuania Working Paper Series 117, Bank of Lithuania.
    2. Federico Huneeus & Kory Kroft & Kevin Lim, 2021. "Earnings Inequality in Production Networks," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 907, Central Bank of Chile.
    3. Engbom, Niklas & Moser, Christian & Sauermann, Jan, 2023. "Firm pay dynamics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 396-423.
    4. Arellano-Bover, Jaime & Saltiel, Fernando, 2021. "Differences in On-the-Job Learning across Firms," IZA Discussion Papers 14473, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Paul Brandily & Camille Hémet & Clément Malgouyres, 2022. "Understanding the Reallocation of Displaced Workers to Firms," Working Papers halshs-03082302, HAL.
    6. Bertay, Ata & Carreño Bustos, José & Huizinga, Harry & Uras, Burak & Vellekoop, N., 2022. "Technological Change and the Finance Wage Premium," Discussion Paper 2022-002, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    7. Morchio, Iacopo & Moser, Christian, 2018. "The Gender Pay Gap: Micro Sources and Macro Consequences," MPRA Paper 99276, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 24 Mar 2020.
    8. Lachowska, Marta & Mas, Alexandre & Saggio, Raffaele & Woodbury, Stephen A., 2023. "Do firm effects drift? Evidence from Washington administrative data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 375-395.
    9. Jaime Arellano-Bover, 2024. "Career Consequences of Firm Heterogeneity for Young Workers: First Job and Firm Size," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(2), pages 549-589.
    10. Richard Audoly & Manudeep Bhuller & Tore Adam Reiremo, 2024. "The Pay and Non-Pay Content of Job Ads," Papers 2407.13204, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2024.
    11. Jason Sockin, 2022. "Show Me the Amenity: Are Higher-Paying Firms Better All Around?," CESifo Working Paper Series 9842, CESifo.
    12. Arellano-Bover, Jaime & San, Shmuel, 2023. "The Role of Firms and Job Mobility in the Assimilation of Immigrants: Former Soviet Union Jews in Israel 1990–2019," IZA Discussion Papers 16389, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Andreas Gulyas, 2018. "Identifying Labor Market Sorting with Firm Dynamics," 2018 Meeting Papers 856, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    14. Adamopoulou, Effrosyni & Manaresi, Francesco & Rachedi, Omar & Yurdagul, Emircan, 2021. "Minimum Wages and Insurance within the Firm," IZA Discussion Papers 14943, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Christopher Cornwell & Ian M. Schmutte & Daniela Scur, 2021. "Building a Productive Workforce: The Role of Structured Management Practices," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(12), pages 7308-7321, December.
    16. Moser, Christian, 2016. "How Could Wage Inequality Within and Across Enterprises be Reduced?," MPRA Paper 95381, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Michael Böhm & Daniel Metzger & Per Strömberg, 2022. "“Since You’re So Rich, You Must Be Really Smart”: Talent, Rent Sharing, and the Finance Wage Premium," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 147, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    18. Masso, Jaan & Meriküll, Jaanika & Vahter, Priit, 2022. "The role of firms in the gender wage gap," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 454-473.
    19. Di Addario, Sabrina & Kline, Patrick & Saggio, Raffaele & Sølvsten, Mikkel, 2023. "It ain’t where you’re from, it’s where you’re at: Hiring origins, firm heterogeneity, and wages," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 340-374.
    20. Jorge Pérez Pérez & José G. Nuño-Ledesma, 2024. "Workers, Workplaces, Sorting, and Wage Dispersion in Mexico," Working Papers 2024-06, Banco de México.

    More about this item

    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:chb:bcchwp:892. 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: Alvaro Castillo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bccgvcl.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.