Product market competition, returns to skill, and wage inequality

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Guadalupe, Maria
• 署名单位: Columbia University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/513299
• 发表日期: 2007
• 页码: 439-474
• 关键词: foreign competition; import competition; LABOR; INNOVATION; deregulation; EMPLOYMENT; earnings; panel; creation; british

摘要

This article examines the effect of product market competition on firms' willingness to pay for workers of different skills. Using a panel of UK workers and two different quasi-natural experiments, I show that returns to skill within an industry increase with competition. I also investigate the mechanisms behind this relationship: in addition to the indirect effects that operate through union bargaining and skill-biased technical change, there is evidence for a direct effect of competition beyond those channels. I provide an explanation for this finding based on the relationship between competition and the sensitivity of profits to cost reductions.