{"id":6939,"date":"2017-10-10T20:23:21","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T20:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2017\/10\/10\/seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:16:11","slug":"seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2017\/10\/10\/seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Seminar: Markups and Declining Labor Shares: Evidence from China"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head>\n<\/head><body><p><strong>Speaker: <\/strong>Professor Daniel Berkowitz<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-medium\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/DanielBerkowitz.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-45954\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Daniel Berkowitz <\/strong>is a<em>&nbsp;<\/em>Professor of Economics at University of Pittsburgh. He is a co-managing editor of the <em>Journal of Comparative Economics.&nbsp;<\/em>He is a well-known Chinese expert and has published extensively on Chinese economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Abstract:<\/strong>&nbsp;Around the time that China joined the WTO, its labor shares fell while its product markups converged (e.g. Brandt et al, 2017; Lu and Yu, 2015). We show that markup convergence is a major force driving declining labor shares. We build a theory showing that firms&rsquo; labor shares are decreasing and convex in markups. Consistent with this theory, we find the downward impact of markup increases on labor shares in initially unprofitable firms robustly dominates the upward impact of markup declines in initially profitable firms. The impact of markup convergence on labor shares dominates alternative explanations including capital-labor substitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Paper:&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/china.dyson.cornell.edu\/s\/LS_Aug21_2017_BMN.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"external\">Markups and Declining Labor Shares: Evidence from China<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Location: <\/strong>Mann Library Room 100<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sponsor:&nbsp;<\/strong>Cornell Institute for China Economic Research (CICER)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaker: Professor Daniel Berkowitz Daniel Berkowitz is a&nbsp;Professor of Economics at University of Pittsburgh. He is a co-managing editor of the Journal of Comparative Economics.&nbsp;He is a well-known Chinese expert&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":6940,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[194],"ppma_author":[],"class_list":["post-6939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events-speakers","tag-seminars","organizational_unit-centers-institutes","organizational_unit-cornell-institute-for-china-economic-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.9 (Yoast SEO v27.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Seminar: Markups and Declining Labor Shares: Evidence from China - Cornell Business Centers &amp; Institutes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Speaker: Professor Daniel Berkowitz Daniel Berkowitz is a\u00a0Professor of Economics at University of Pittsburgh. He is a co-managing editor of the Journal of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2017\/10\/10\/seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seminar: Markups and Declining Labor Shares: Evidence from China - Cornell Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Speaker: Professor Daniel Berkowitz Daniel Berkowitz is a\u00a0Professor of Economics at University of Pittsburgh. He is a co-managing editor of the Journal of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2017\/10\/10\/seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Centers &amp; Institutes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-10T20:23:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-14T18:16:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/06\/DanielBerkowitz.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"314\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Will Tay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Will Tay\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/10\\\/seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/10\\\/seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Will Tay\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5bb6da8e3a5639748594f1b97d5cc053\"},\"headline\":\"Seminar: Markups and Declining Labor Shares: Evidence from China\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-10T20:23:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-14T18:16:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/10\\\/seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":168,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/10\\\/seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/DanielBerkowitz.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Seminars\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Events &amp; Speakers\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/10\\\/seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/10\\\/seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china\\\/\",\"name\":\"Seminar: Markups and Declining Labor Shares: Evidence from China - Cornell Business Centers &amp; Institutes\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/10\\\/seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/10\\\/seminar-markups-and-declining-labor-shares-evidence-from-china\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/DanielBerkowitz.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-10T20:23:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-14T18:16:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5bb6da8e3a5639748594f1b97d5cc053\"},\"description\":\"Speaker: Professor Daniel Berkowitz Daniel Berkowitz is a\u00a0Professor of Economics at University of Pittsburgh. 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