Common Ownership and the Secular Stagnation Hypothesis

Abstract

We extend the model in Azar and Vives (2018) to allow for investment and show that higher effective market concentration (augmented by common ownership) leads to lower equilibrium wages, real interest rates, lower output, lower labor share, and lower capital share as well (under a mild condition). We calibrate a multisector sector model of the US economy and find that the rise in common ownership may account for the broad evolution of labor and capital shares in the period 1985-2015 while measured increases in concentration cannot (under plausible values for elasticity parameters).