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Exploiting or Augmenting Labor?

Michaël Rubens et al.

American Economic Review: Insights2026https://doi.org/10.1257/aeri.20240570article
AJG 3ABDC A*
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0.50

Abstract

We show that existing “production approaches” to markdown estimation do not separately identify factor price markdowns from factor-augmenting productivity levels. We propose a method to overcome this challenge and apply it to study the effects of ownership liberalization in Chinese nonferrous metal industries. We find that private firms have much higher labor-augmenting productivity levels than state-owned enterprises (SOEs). However, we also find that private firms exert higher monopsony power over their workers than SOEs, although this only holds for domestically owned firms. This suggests that privatization policies imply a trade-off between increased productivity and monopsony power. (JEL D24, F23, J42, L33, L61, L72, P31)

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1257/aeri.20240570

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@article{michaël2026,
  title        = {{Exploiting or Augmenting Labor?}},
  author       = {Michaël Rubens et al.},
  journal      = {American Economic Review: Insights},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1257/aeri.20240570},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

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