Employer Concentration and Wages for Specialized Workers
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 16,
no. 1, January 2024
(pp. 447-79)
Abstract
This paper studies how wages respond to a sudden change in employer concentration by using the deregulation of the Swedish pharmacy industry. The reform involved a substantial and policy-driven increase in the number of employers that varied by local labor market. Exploiting this variation, elasticities of wages with respect to labor market concentration are estimated between −0.025 and −0.061. The positive wage effects from reduced employer concentration are most prevalent for more mobile workers as well as younger and foreign-born workers. Overall, the paper finds that employer concentration matters for wages in a context where skills are industry specific.Citation
Thoresson, Anna. 2024. "Employer Concentration and Wages for Specialized Workers." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 16 (1): 447-79. DOI: 10.1257/app.20210280Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- J31 Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
- J42 Monopsony; Segmented Labor Markets
- L13 Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
- L81 Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
- L88 Industry Studies: Services: Government Policy
There are no comments for this article.
Login to Comment