Skip to main content

Labour’s Share of Income

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
  • 35 Accesses

Abstract

Economists have long studied labour’s share of national income as a crude indicator of income distribution. More recently, labour’s share has also been seen as offering insights into the shape of the aggregate production function. This has made labour’s share a parameter of interest for macroeconomics, growth economics, and international economics, among other fields. Recent studies support the longstanding observation that labour’s share of national income is relatively constant over time and across countries. Measurement of labour income, however, can be difficult in economies where many people are self-employed or work in family enterprises.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 6,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 8,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Antràs, P. 2004. Is the US aggregate production function Cobb-Douglas? New estimates of the elasticity of substitution. Contributions to Macroeconomics 4(1), Article 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bentolila, S. and G. Saint-Paul. 2003. Explaining movements in the labor share. Contributions to Macroeconomics 3(1), Article 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernanke, B.S., and R.S. Gürkaynak. 2002. Is growth exogenous? Taking Mankiw, Romer and Weil seriously. In NBER macroeconomics annual 2001, ed. B.S. Bernanke and K.S. Rogoff. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cobb, C.W., and P.H. Douglas. 1928. A theory of production. American Economic Review 18: 139–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duffy, J., and C. Papageorgiou. 2000. A cross-country empirical investigation of the aggregate production function specification. Journal of Economic Growth 5: 87–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • García-Verdú, R. 2005. Factor shares from household survey data. Working paper no. 2005–05, Dirección General de Investigación Económica, Banco de México.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gollin, D. 2002. Getting income shares right. Journal of Political Economy 110: 458–474.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Houthakker, H.S. 1955. The Pareto distribution and the Cobb–Douglas production function in activity analysis. Review of Economic Studies 23: 27–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, D.G. 1954. The functional distribution of income in the United States, 1850–1952. Review of Economics and Statistics 36: 175–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, C.I. 2005. The shape of production functions and the direction of technical change. Quarterly Journal of Economics 120: 517–549.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaldor, N. 1961. Capital accumulation and economic growth. In The theory of capital, ed. F. Lutz. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keynes, J.M. 1939. Relative movements of real wages and output. Economic Journal 49(193): 34–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kravis, I.B. 1962. The structure of income: some quantitative essays. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuznets, S. 1946. National income. In Encyclopedia of the social sciences, vol. 11. New York: Macmillan. Reproduced In Readings in the theory of income distribution, selected by a committee of the American Economic Association. Philadelphia: Blakiston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuznets, S. 1959. Quantitative aspects of the economic growth of nations IV: distribution of national income by factor shares. Economic Development and Cultural Change 7(3,Part II): 1–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortega, D. and F. Rodríguez. 2006. Are capital shares higher in poor countries? Evidence from industrial surveys. Wesleyan economics working papers no. 2006-023, Wesleyan University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. 1776. The wealth of nations: Books I–III, 1986. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Solow, R.M. 1957. Technical change and the aggregate production function. Review of Economics and Statistics 39: 312–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solow, R.M. 1958. A skeptical note on the constancy of relative shares. American Economic Review 48: 618–631.

    Google Scholar 

  • Streightoff, F.H. 1912. The distribution of incomes in the United States, 1912. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Copyright information

© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Gollin, D. (2018). Labour’s Share of Income. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2092

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics