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Democracy and the Labor Share of Income: A Cross-Country Analysis

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  • Guerriero, Marta

    (Asian Development Bank Institute)

Abstract

Summary statistics on the labor share of income show that between-country variation is much greater than within-country variation: functional income distribution is determined by factors which change substantially across countries but are persistent over time. We attempt to shed some light on the long-run and political economy determinants of the labor income share. We revisit and extend previous empirical research on democratic political institutions and the labor share using a dataset of 112 countries over 1970–2015. Our empirical analysis shows that democracy allows workers to appropriate a higher share of national income. The evidence is robust to different indices of democracy and different periods of time, and after performing instrumental variable estimation. These results are particularly relevant today, in light of the recent global decline in the labor income share and current crisis of democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Guerriero, Marta, 2019. "Democracy and the Labor Share of Income: A Cross-Country Analysis," ADBI Working Papers 919, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0919
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    3. Raihan, Selim, 2021. "Functional Income Distribution and Inequality in the Asia-Pacific Countries," MPRA Paper 110469, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    labor share; factor income distribution; democracy; political economy; institutions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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