Measuring Labor Market Power in Developing Countries: Evidence from Colombian Plants

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Amodio, Francesco; de Roux, Nicolas
• 署名单位: McGill University; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Universidad de los Andes (Colombia)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/725248
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 949-977
• 关键词: Monopsony; size; INEQUALITY; exports; TRADE; FIRMS

摘要

How much can employers in low- and middle-income countries suppress wages below marginal productivity? Using plant and customs data from Colombia, we exploit predetermined variation across plants in sales export destinations combined with variation in exchange rates to generate plant-specific shocks to marginal revenue productivity and labor demand. We estimate a firm-level labor supply elasticity of around 2.5, implying that workers produce about 40% more than their wage level. This result is driven by plants that account for a large share of local employment, consistent with an oligopsonistic labor market model.