Worker mobility and wages have declined in the United States amid rising employer market power. I propose a theory of the labor market in which a decrease in employer competition, characterized by fewer firms per worker, drives the decline in worker mobility and wages. A finite and decreasing number of employers exert market power by excluding their offers from the outside options of their employees. This reduces the value of workers’ outside options and, consequently, their wages and transitions across employers. I quantify the model to explain the long-run decline in worker mobility and wages and examine its cross-sectional implications.
{"title":"Firm Market Power, Worker Mobility, and Wages in the US Labor Market","authors":"Sadhika Bagga","doi":"10.1086/726819","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726819","url":null,"abstract":"Worker mobility and wages have declined in the United States amid rising employer market power. I propose a theory of the labor market in which a decrease in employer competition, characterized by fewer firms per worker, drives the decline in worker mobility and wages. A finite and decreasing number of employers exert market power by excluding their offers from the outside options of their employees. This reduces the value of workers’ outside options and, consequently, their wages and transitions across employers. I quantify the model to explain the long-run decline in worker mobility and wages and examine its cross-sectional implications.","PeriodicalId":48308,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor Economics","volume":"41 1","pages":"S205 - S256"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47198381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dynamic Effort Choice in High School: Costs and Benefits of an Academic Track","authors":"Olivier De Groote","doi":"10.1086/726702","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726702","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48308,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor Economics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43898730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Employment among older Americans has sharply risen since the mid-1990s, particularly in high-skill jobs. How has this labor-supply increase affected other participants in the labor market, and new entrants in particular? Exploiting cross-commuting zone differences in age composition among the old driven in large part by historical birth patterns, this paper explores the impact of retirement trends on youth employment outcomes between 1980 and 2017. I find that in commuting zones where fewer older workers retire due to the initial age structure, the share of younger workers in high-skill jobs declines while the share of younger workers in low-skill jobs rises. Fewer retirements also lead to a rise in the share of younger workers who have higher educational attainment than their job typically requires, declining youth wages, and lower job mobility. Together, the results suggest that the retirement slowdown has contributed to stagnant early career outcomes in recent decades, explaining 30 percent of the rise in the share of younger workers in low-skill jobs between 1980 and 2017. JEL: J11, J21, J24, J26 ∗I thank Martha Bailey, Matthias Doepke, Jon Guryan, Lee Lockwood and Matt Notowidigdo for their guidance throughout this project. For helpful comments and discussions, I thank Lori Beaman, Dan Fetter, Ben Friedrich, Sasha Indarte, Seema Jayachandran, Cynthia Kinnan, Shariq Mohammed, Mel Stephens, as well as seminar participants at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, NBER Labor Studies Fall Meeting, NBER Summer Institute, Northwestern University, Stockholm University, University of Michigan, and Washington University in St. Louis. I gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship on the Economics of an Aging Workforce, awarded through the NBER. †Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, 426 Thompson St, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 (email: mohnen@umich.edu).
{"title":"The Impact of the Retirement Slowdown on the U.S. Youth Labor Market","authors":"Paul Mohnen","doi":"10.1086/725874","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/725874","url":null,"abstract":"Employment among older Americans has sharply risen since the mid-1990s, particularly in high-skill jobs. How has this labor-supply increase affected other participants in the labor market, and new entrants in particular? Exploiting cross-commuting zone differences in age composition among the old driven in large part by historical birth patterns, this paper explores the impact of retirement trends on youth employment outcomes between 1980 and 2017. I find that in commuting zones where fewer older workers retire due to the initial age structure, the share of younger workers in high-skill jobs declines while the share of younger workers in low-skill jobs rises. Fewer retirements also lead to a rise in the share of younger workers who have higher educational attainment than their job typically requires, declining youth wages, and lower job mobility. Together, the results suggest that the retirement slowdown has contributed to stagnant early career outcomes in recent decades, explaining 30 percent of the rise in the share of younger workers in low-skill jobs between 1980 and 2017. JEL: J11, J21, J24, J26 ∗I thank Martha Bailey, Matthias Doepke, Jon Guryan, Lee Lockwood and Matt Notowidigdo for their guidance throughout this project. For helpful comments and discussions, I thank Lori Beaman, Dan Fetter, Ben Friedrich, Sasha Indarte, Seema Jayachandran, Cynthia Kinnan, Shariq Mohammed, Mel Stephens, as well as seminar participants at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, NBER Labor Studies Fall Meeting, NBER Summer Institute, Northwestern University, Stockholm University, University of Michigan, and Washington University in St. Louis. I gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship on the Economics of an Aging Workforce, awarded through the NBER. †Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, 426 Thompson St, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 (email: mohnen@umich.edu).","PeriodicalId":48308,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor Economics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49103763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effects of confidential access to oral contraception in late adolescence on work and earnings","authors":"Randy Cragun","doi":"10.1086/726383","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726383","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48308,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor Economics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43435778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Maria Cheung, Johan Egebark, Anders Forslund, Lisa Laun, Magnus Rödin, J. Vikström
{"title":"Does Job Search Assistance Reduce Unemployment? Evidence on Displacement Effects and Mechanisms","authors":"Maria Cheung, Johan Egebark, Anders Forslund, Lisa Laun, Magnus Rödin, J. Vikström","doi":"10.1086/726384","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726384","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48308,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor Economics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43675701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper develops measures of the occupational homogeneity of employers as indicators of outsourcing. Findings are threefold. First, wages are strongly related to occupational homogeneity, particularly for workers in low-wage occupations. Second, by some measures, workers—particularly those in higher-wage occupations—saw their employing establishments become more occupationally homogeneous during 2004–19. Third, changes in the occupational homogeneity of workplaces contributed to growing wage inequality among workers over the first part of this period. The growing sorting and segregation of workers by occupation into different employers is an important part of wage inequality.
{"title":"Outsourcing, Occupationally Homogeneous Employers, and Wage Inequality in the United States","authors":"Elizabeth Weber Handwerker","doi":"10.1086/726634","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726634","url":null,"abstract":"This paper develops measures of the occupational homogeneity of employers as indicators of outsourcing. Findings are threefold. First, wages are strongly related to occupational homogeneity, particularly for workers in low-wage occupations. Second, by some measures, workers—particularly those in higher-wage occupations—saw their employing establishments become more occupationally homogeneous during 2004–19. Third, changes in the occupational homogeneity of workplaces contributed to growing wage inequality among workers over the first part of this period. The growing sorting and segregation of workers by occupation into different employers is an important part of wage inequality.","PeriodicalId":48308,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor Economics","volume":"41 1","pages":"S173 - S203"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46491819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Analyses of survey data highlight observable person characteristics, such as education and occupation, as critical factors for rising earnings inequality, while industry has an offsetting effect. In contrast, analysis of administrative data highlights that rising between-firm earnings dispersion and, in turn, between-industry earnings dispersion dominates the rise in earnings inequality. We construct a novel integrated dataset based on CPS micro data linked with LEHD administrative records. We find that most of the rise in earnings inequality is accounted for by rising between-industry inequality. This finding reflects a substantial contribution of increased sorting and segregation of observable person characteristics between industries.
{"title":"Increasing Earnings Inequality: Reconciling Evidence from Survey and Administrative Data","authors":"J. Haltiwanger, Henry R. Hyatt, James R. Spletzer","doi":"10.1086/726632","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726632","url":null,"abstract":"Analyses of survey data highlight observable person characteristics, such as education and occupation, as critical factors for rising earnings inequality, while industry has an offsetting effect. In contrast, analysis of administrative data highlights that rising between-firm earnings dispersion and, in turn, between-industry earnings dispersion dominates the rise in earnings inequality. We construct a novel integrated dataset based on CPS micro data linked with LEHD administrative records. We find that most of the rise in earnings inequality is accounted for by rising between-industry inequality. This finding reflects a substantial contribution of increased sorting and segregation of observable person characteristics between industries.","PeriodicalId":48308,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor Economics","volume":"41 1","pages":"S61 - S93"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2023-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49357350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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