Recent years have seen intense debate about the causes of the observed decline in the labor share. We extend this inquiry by investigating whether the design and enforcement of competition law and policy are associated with changes in the labor share. Using a panel of 22 industries in 12 OECD economies, we find a positive statistical association between the effectiveness of competition policy and changes in the labor share over the period 1995–2005. This suggests a potential link between the design and effectiveness of competition policy and the labor share, and more broadly to distributional outcomes. Our results reinforce the importance of accounting for country-specific factors, including the design and enforcement of local laws, when examining dynamics in the labor share. The analysis implies that effective competition law and policy could mitigate the decline of the labor share, particularly in settings characterized by low levels of labor protection and limited labor bargaining power. (JEL: E21, E24, E64, J01, J21, K21, L40).

中文翻译：

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竞争政策和劳动份额

近年来，人们对劳动力份额下降的原因展开了激烈的争论。我们通过调查竞争法和政策的设计和执行是否与劳动力份额的变化相关来扩展这一调查。通过对 12 个经合组织经济体的 22 个行业进行调查，我们发现 1995 年至 2005 年期间竞争政策的有效性与劳动力份额的变化之间存在统计正相关关系。这表明竞争政策的设计和有效性与劳动力份额以及更广泛的分配结果之间存在潜在联系。我们的结果强调了在研究劳动力份额动态时考虑特定国家因素的重要性，包括当地法律的设计和执行。分析表明，有效的竞争法和政策可以缓解劳动力份额的下降，特别是在劳动力保护水平低和劳动力议价能力有限的环境中。（JEL：E21、E24、E64、J01、J21、K21、L40）。