Capital Accumulation and the Labor Share of Income

Abstract: This paper estimates the effects of capital accumulation on industry labor shares by taking account of capital heterogeneity. Using a cross-country, cross-industry dataset covering 15 European countries over 38 industries, I take advantage of a detailed breakdown of the capital stock distinguishing between physical, ICT and intangible assets. The results suggest that, over the 1995-2015 period, capital accumulation has not been a driving force of declining labor shares - if anything the opposite. Performing a cross-section regression analysis on the relationship between long differences in capital intensities and industry labor shares, I find that accumulation of physical capital in general, and Machinery & Equipment in particular, are the only asset types showing a statistically significant correlation with the labor share, suggesting a positive association. In contrast to previous research, I do not document a negative relationship between ICT capital and labor shares. I do, however, find evidence suggesting that it might be investments in Software & Databases that explain these earlier findings.