Comparing micro-evidence on rent sharing from two different econometric models

S. Dobbelaere*, J. Mairesse

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The extent to which employers share rents with their employees is typically assessed by estimating the responsiveness of workers’ wages on firms’ ability to pay. This paper compares rent-sharing estimates using such a wage determination regression with estimates based on a productivity regression that relies on standard firm-level input and output data. Using a large matched firm-worker panel data sample for French manufacturing, we find that the respective industry distributions of the rent-sharing estimates are correlated and slightly overlap, but are significantly different on average. Precisely, if we only rely on the firm-level information, we obtain an average rent-sharing estimate of roughly 0.30 for the productivity regression and 0.17 for the wage determination regression. When we also take advantage of the worker-level information to control for unobserved worker ability in the model of wage determination, we find as expected a lower average value of 0.10.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)18-26
Number of pages9
JournalLabour Economics
Volume52
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2018

JEL classifications

  • c23 - "Single Equation Models; Single Variables: Models with Panel Data; Longitudinal Data; Spatial Time Series"
  • d21 - Firm Behavior: Theory
  • j31 - "Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials"
  • j51 - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
  • o40 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: General

Keywords

  • Matched employer-employee data
  • Production function
  • Rent sharing
  • Wage equation
  • UNITED-STATES
  • LIMITED MOBILITY BIAS
  • PRICE-COST MARGINS
  • FIRMS
  • TRADE-UNIONS
  • LABOR-MARKET
  • CAPITAL-SKILL COMPLEMENTARITY
  • BARGAINING POWER
  • PANEL-DATA
  • INTERINDUSTRY WAGE DIFFERENTIALS

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