Large Firms, Consumer Heterogeneity, and the Profit Share

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Feenstra, Robert C.; Macedoni, Luca; Xu, Mingzhi (Jimmy )
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Davis; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Milan; Peking University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MACROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7707
• DOI: 10.1257/mac.20220017
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: labor share; product; TRADE; QUALITY; decline; prices; MARKET; performance; selection; tastes

摘要

We examine the relationship between large firms and the rising profit share in a model that features oligopolistic competition and consumer heterogeneity. Conditional on the sales distribution, consumer heterogeneity increases firm-level markups and the profit share. Using NielsenIQ data on purchases at the household-barcode level, we quantify the role of consumer heterogeneity, finding that the average markup and the profit share are 20 and 6.4 percentage points larger than predicted by a representative consumer model. Extrapolating our results to the period 1990-2021, rising income inequality implies an increase of more than 4 percentage points in the retail profit share. (JEL D12, D22, D33, L25, L81, M31)