Market concentration and the relative demand for college‐educated labour

Abstract

AbstractIf large firms employ relatively more educated workers, will an increase in market concentration increase income inequality by raising the relative demand for skill? I use Swedish employer–employee data from 1997–2016 and find a strong correlation between firm size and the share of college‐educated (‘skilled’) workers. An increase in a sector's market concentration is correlated with a higher skilled wage premium and higher relative employment of skilled workers. This is due mainly to the reallocation of workers across firms. I demonstrate how these findings can be explained by a model of heterogeneous firms where productivity and skill intensity are positively correlated.