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Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Productivity, Inequality, and Economic Rents

Jason Furman at ProMarket:

Productivity, Inequality, and Economic Rents: Productivity growth—a necessary (though not sufficient) condition for rising incomes in the long run—has slowed since 1973... At the same time, inequality in the United States is higher and, in recent decades, has risen faster than in other major advanced economies. ...
These dual trends ... have many distinct sources, but insofar as they have some causes in common, there is the potential to address these causes in ways that simultaneously improve efficiency and equity. To this end, the evidence that a rise in rents is contributing to both phenomena is important. ...
The good news is that to the degree that the “rents” interpretation is correct, it suggests that it is possible to reduce inequality and promote productivity growth without hurting efficiency by changing how rents are divided—or even that it is possible to do both while increasing efficiency by acting to reduce rents in the economy. Policies that raise the minimum wage and provide greater support for collective bargaining can help level the playing field for workers in negotiations with employers, in turn changing the way that rents are divided. Measures that would rationalize licensing requirements for employment, reduce zoning and other land-use restrictions, appropriately balance intellectual property regimes, and change the incentives that have led to the expansion of the financial sector as a share of the economy would all help curb excessive rents.
Additional measures that would reduce the scope and unequal distribution of economic rents include the promotion of competition through rulemaking and regulations, as well as the elimination of regulatory barriers to competition. ...
The bad news, however, is that rents have beneficiaries and these beneficiaries fight hard to keep and expand their rents. As a result, political reforms and other steps aimed at curbing the influence of regulatory lobbying are important for reducing the ability of people and corporations to seek rents successfully. Such actions would help ensure that economic growth in the decades ahead is robust, sustainable, and widely shared.

    Posted by on Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 12:15 AM in Economics, Income Distribution, Market Failure, Productivity | Permalink  Comments (16)


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