Estimating the Cost of Capital and the Profit Share

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: van Vlokhoven, Has
• 署名单位: Tilburg University
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueae001
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 2175-2206
• 关键词: labor share; global decline; market power; US; GROWTH; rise; PRODUCTIVITY; DYNAMICS; EMPLOYMENT; dispersion

摘要

Capital costs are not directly observed since firms own part of their capital stock. I show under which assumptions variation in firms' input choices reveals the user cost of capital. Using Compustat data for the United States, I find that the costs of tangible capital as a share of output have not been increasing, while economic profits have been increasing over the past 50 years from around 4% to around 9% of sales. About three-quarters of the fall in the labour share is associated with a rise in profits and the remainder is associated with a rise in intangible intensity.