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Do firms share their success with workers? The response of wages to product market conditions

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Abstract

We provide strong new evidence that industry financial conditions play an important role in wage determination in the U.S. manufacturing sector. Ordinary least squares estimates of the effect of rents per worker on wages are positive and significant, but quite small. However, using two standard bargaining models, we illustrate that this may stem from a variety of econometric difficulties that plague the OLS estimates. In this paper, we are able to overcome these issues and identify the effects of the industry financial situation on wages. We do this using the U.S. input-output tables to isolate exogenous variation in an industry's product market conditions. Our instrumental variable estimates reveal a substantial amount of rent sharing in U.S. manufacturing---much more than is consistent with a purely competitive labor market.

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  • Marcello Estevao & Stacey Tevlin, 2000. "Do firms share their success with workers? The response of wages to product market conditions," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2000-17, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2000-17
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    Cited by:

    1. Pedro Martins, 2009. "Rent sharing before and after the wage bill," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(17), pages 2133-2151.
    2. Maritza López Novella & Salimata Sissoko, 2013. "Understanding wage determination in a multi-level bargaining system: a panel data analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 879-897, April.
    3. Strozzi, Chiara & Pistoresi, Barbara, 2001. "Rent Sharing in Wage Determination: Evidence from Italy," CEPR Discussion Papers 2939, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Mahmood Arai & Fredrik Heyman, 2009. "Microdata evidence on rent-sharing," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(23), pages 2965-2976.
    5. Sabien Dobbelaere & Jacques Mairesse, 2010. "Comparing Micro-evidence on Rent Sharing from Three Different Approaches," NBER Working Papers 16220, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Fathi Fakhfakh & Felix FitzRoy, 2004. "Basic Wages and Firm Characteristics: Rent Sharing in French Manufacturing," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 18(4), pages 615-631, December.
    7. Barbara Pistoresi & Chiara Strozzi, 2003. "Rent Sharing and Bargaining Levels: Evidence from Italy," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 62(2), pages 145-170, October.
    8. Kuckulenz, Anja, 2006. "Wage and Productivity Effect of Continuing Training in Germany: A Sectoral Analysis," ZEW Discussion Papers 06-025, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Maritza López-Novella & Salimata Sissoko, 2009. "Working Paper 12-09 - Salaires et négociation collective en Belgique : une analyse microéconomique en panel," Working Papers 0912, Federal Planning Bureau, Belgium.

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