Firm dynamics and residual inequality in open economies
Wage inequality between similar workers has been on the rise in many rich countries. Recent empirical research suggests that heterogeneity in firm characteristics is crucial to understand wage dispersion. Lower trade costs as well as labor and product market reforms are considered critical drivers o...
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| Format: | Article |
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Oxford University Press
2018
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52570/ |
| _version_ | 1848798756908040192 |
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| author | Felbermayr, Gabriel Impullitti, Giammario Prat, Julien |
| author_facet | Felbermayr, Gabriel Impullitti, Giammario Prat, Julien |
| author_sort | Felbermayr, Gabriel |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Wage inequality between similar workers has been on the rise in many rich countries. Recent empirical research suggests that heterogeneity in firm characteristics is crucial to understand wage dispersion. Lower trade costs as well as labor and product market reforms are considered critical drivers of inequality dynamics. We ask how these factors affect wage dispersion and how much of their effect on inequality is attributable to changes in wage dispersion between and within firms. To tackle these questions, we incorporate directed job search into a dynamic model of international trade where wage inequality results from the interplay of convex adjustment costs with firms’ different hiring needs along their life cycles. Fitting the model to German linked employer-employee data for the years 1996-2009, we find that firm heterogeneity explains about half of the surge in inequality. The most important mechanism is tougher product market competition driven by domestic product market deregulation and, indirectly, by international trade. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:24:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-52570 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:24:50Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-525702020-05-04T19:30:05Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52570/ Firm dynamics and residual inequality in open economies Felbermayr, Gabriel Impullitti, Giammario Prat, Julien Wage inequality between similar workers has been on the rise in many rich countries. Recent empirical research suggests that heterogeneity in firm characteristics is crucial to understand wage dispersion. Lower trade costs as well as labor and product market reforms are considered critical drivers of inequality dynamics. We ask how these factors affect wage dispersion and how much of their effect on inequality is attributable to changes in wage dispersion between and within firms. To tackle these questions, we incorporate directed job search into a dynamic model of international trade where wage inequality results from the interplay of convex adjustment costs with firms’ different hiring needs along their life cycles. Fitting the model to German linked employer-employee data for the years 1996-2009, we find that firm heterogeneity explains about half of the surge in inequality. The most important mechanism is tougher product market competition driven by domestic product market deregulation and, indirectly, by international trade. Oxford University Press 2018-02-01 Article PeerReviewed Felbermayr, Gabriel, Impullitti, Giammario and Prat, Julien (2018) Firm dynamics and residual inequality in open economies. Journal of the European Economic Association . ISSN 1542-4766 F12 - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation F16 - Trade and Labor Market Interactions E24 - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity https://academic.oup.com/jeea/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jeea/jvx049/4833556 doi:10.1093/jeea/jvx049 doi:10.1093/jeea/jvx049 |
| spellingShingle | F12 - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation F16 - Trade and Labor Market Interactions E24 - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity Felbermayr, Gabriel Impullitti, Giammario Prat, Julien Firm dynamics and residual inequality in open economies |
| title | Firm dynamics and residual inequality in open economies |
| title_full | Firm dynamics and residual inequality in open economies |
| title_fullStr | Firm dynamics and residual inequality in open economies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Firm dynamics and residual inequality in open economies |
| title_short | Firm dynamics and residual inequality in open economies |
| title_sort | firm dynamics and residual inequality in open economies |
| topic | F12 - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation F16 - Trade and Labor Market Interactions E24 - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52570/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52570/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52570/ |