Employer Concentration and Wages for Specialized Workers

Anna Thoresson

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2024, vol. 16, issue 1, 447-79

Abstract: This paper studies how wages respond to a sudden change in employer concentration by using the deregulation of the Swedish pharmacy industry. The reform involved a substantial and policy-driven increase in the number of employers that varied by local labor market. Exploiting this variation, elasticities of wages with respect to labor market concentration are estimated between −0.025 and −0.061. The positive wage effects from reduced employer concentration are most prevalent for more mobile workers as well as younger and foreign-born workers. Overall, the paper finds that employer concentration matters for wages in a context where skills are industry specific.

JEL-codes: J24 J31 J42 L13 L81 L88 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1257/app.20210280

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