The Labor Share of Income Around the World: Evidence from a Panel Dataset
Guerriero, Marta | February 2019
Abstract
There are two fundamental reasons why factor shares have traditionally been overlooked in the economic literature. First, because of their nature, factor shares are conceptually difficult to define and measure. Second, they have for a long time been perceived as constant across time and space. In this study, we provide an evaluation of five different methodologies of estimation commonly used in the labor share literature and propose a new measurement. We then compile a global dataset of the labor income share across 151 economies—both developing and developed—for all or part of the period 1970–2015. Results show that our suggested indicator is correlated to the other five measures but it also retains unique information. Contrary to the traditional assumption of stable factor shares, we document the existence of considerable heterogeneity across economies and variability over time. Specifically, there has been a general decline in the labor share around the world, in particular from the mid-1980s onwards.
Citation
Guerriero, Marta. 2019. The Labor Share of Income Around the World: Evidence from a Panel Dataset. © Asian Development Bank Institute. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/9624.Keywords
Alleviating Poverty
Anti-Poverty
Extreme Poverty
Fight Against Poverty
Global Poverty
Health Aspects Of Poverty
Indicators Of Poverty
Participatory Poverty Assessment
Poverty Eradication
Poverty Analysis
Poverty In Developing Countries
Poverty Reduction Efforts
Urban Poverty
Results-Based Monitoring And Evaluation
Project Evaluation & Review Technique
Performance Evaluation
Impact Evaluation Reports
Evaluation Criteria
Development Indicators
Environmental Indicators
Economic Indicators
Educational Indicators
Demographic Indicators
Health Indicators
Disadvantaged Groups
Low Income Groups
Socially Disadvantaged Children
Aging
Rural Conditions
Rural Development
Social Conditions
Urban Development
Urban Sociology
Project finance
Resources evaluation
Needs assessment
Cost benefit analysis
Poor
Economic forecasting
Health expectancy
Social groups
Political participation
Distribution of income
Inequality of income
Developing countries
Rural community development
Mass society
Social change
Social policy
Social stability
Population
Sustainable development
Peasantry
Urban policy
Urban renewal
Results mapping
Risk assessment
Participatory monitoring and evaluation
Cost effectiveness
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