THE RISE OF MARKET POWER AND THE MACROECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: De Loecker, Jan; Eeckhout, Jan; Unger, Gabriel
• 署名单位: KU Leuven; National Bureau of Economic Research; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; ICREA; Pompeu Fabra University; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1093/qje/qjz041
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 561-644
• 关键词: UNITED-STATES; PRODUCTIVITY; markups; TRADE; returns; prices; IMPACT; scale; cost

摘要

We document the evolution of market power based on firm-level data for the U.S. economy since 1955. We measure both markups and profitability. In 1980, aggregate markups start to rise from 21% above marginal cost to 61% now. The increase is driven mainly by the upper tail of the markup distribution: the upper percentiles have increased sharply. Quite strikingly, the median is unchanged. In addition to the fattening upper tail of the markup distribution, there is reallocation of market share from low- to high-markup firms. This rise occurs mostly within industry. We also find an increase in the average profit rate from 1% to 8%. Although there is also an increase in overhead costs, the markup increase is in excess of overhead. We discuss the macroeconomic implications of an increase in average market power, which can account for a number of secular trends in the past four decades, most notably the declining labor and capital shares as well as the decrease in labor market dynamism.