Macro Market Power and Distribution

Description du projet

Quand le pouvoir du marché fait pencher la balance et façonne l’inégalité

Dans les économies avancées, une poignée d’entreprises s’est accaparée une part toujours plus importante des bénéfices, tandis que la part des revenus des travailleurs diminue. C’est ce que les économistes appellent le «pouvoir de marché». C’est la capacité des grandes entreprises à fixer les prix, les salaires et les règles du jeu. Le projet MACRO_POWR_DISTRBUTN, financé par le CER, vise à expliquer comment ce pouvoir façonne les inégalités. À l’aide de données provenant de Belgique et des États-Unis, le projet étudiera la taille des entreprises, les contraintes financières et l’automatisation afin de déterminer comment ces facteurs influencent les salaires, les bénéfices et l’investissement. L’objectif du projet est d’expliquer pourquoi certaines entreprises réalisent des bénéfices plus importants mais versent proportionnellement moins d’argent aux travailleurs et comment des politiques plus intelligentes pourraient rétablir l’équilibre entre l’efficacité et l’équité.

Objectif

Market power is about the distribution of economic surplus between firms, customers and workers. In this proposal, I use modern heterogeneous agents macro tools that incorporate heterogeneity in firm productivity, in preferences, and in market structure. I investigate the macroeconomic mechanisms that link market power and distributional characteristics and formulate welfare-improving policies that lead to efficiency gains and re-distribution.

I propose a unifying framework of market power and distribution in general equilibrium, and use unique data to address the following 3 questions:

1. How does firm size determine monopsony power? Large firms have lower markups yet higher markdowns. This is a key determinant behind the lower labor share in superstar firms, but we have no mechanism that explains why. I propose to use the unifying framework and Belgian VAT transaction data combined with matched employer-employee data to quantify the economic mechanism by which markdowns vary in the firm size distribution.

2. How do financial frictions influence market power? Low productivity firms tend to face tighter financial constraints, leading to higher dispersion in the distribution of capital and technology. This in turn increases market power. I have access to data from a private bank (Caixabank) on a representative sample of firms' payroll, accounts, as well as credit. Within the unifying framework I aim to quantify the impact of financial frictions on the distribution of market power.

3. How does labor-saving technological change affect the distribution of the labor share and market power? Technology adoption is driven by the firm's attempt to increase profitability. Incorporating general equilibrium effects and market power, I propose to analyze the substitution patterns within and between firms with the introduction of new technologies. I will use US Census data to quantify the distributional effects of labor-saving technological change.