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This study investigates the relationships among digital transformation, technological innovation, industry–university–research collaborations and labor income share in manufacturing firms.

The relationships are tested using an empirical method, constructing regression models, by collecting 1,240 manufacturing firms and 9,029 items listed on the A-share market in China from 2013 to 2020.

The results indicate that digital transformation has a positive effect on manufacturing companies’ labor income share. Technological innovation can mediate the effect of digital transformation on labor income share. Industry–university–research cooperation can positively moderate the promotion effect of digital transformation on labor income share but cannot moderate the mediating effect of technological innovation. Heterogeneity analysis also found that firms without service-based transformation and nonstate-owned firms are better able to increase their labor income share through digital transformation.

This study provides a new path to increase the labor income share of enterprises to achieve common prosperity, which is important for manufacturing enterprises to better transform and upgrade to achieve high-quality development.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze empirically the relationship between the labor share and income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient and by the income shares for different quintiles, during the period 1990–2015 for 62 developed and developing countries.

This study uses panel data techniques to analyze empirically the relationship between the labor share and income inequality.

This paper finds that a lower labor share is associated with a higher Gini coefficient. A lower labor share is found to be strongly associated with a smaller income share for the lowest two quintiles and larger income share for the highest quintile and weakly associated with a smaller income share for the third and fourth quintiles. Moreover, this paper finds that the lower the quintile, the stronger the impact of the labor share on the income share of the quintile.

Policymakers should take into account the evolution of the labor share. Public policies that improve labor market outcomes, such as those aimed to promote participation in the labor market and strengthen the human capital of low-income groups, seem necessary to prevent the rise in economic inequalities. Moreover, as the digital transformation of society progresses, policies to promote skill deepening may have an important role in reversing excessive inequalities.

How changes in the labor share are associated with changes in the Gini coefficient, and how this is driven by income shares for different quintiles, for a broad range of countries during the most recent period, has not been comprehensively studied using panel data techniques.

In large parts of the world, income inequality has been rising in recent decades. Other regions have experienced declining trends in income inequality. This raises the question of which mechanisms underlie contrasting observed trends in income inequality around the globe. To address this research question in an empirical analysis at the aggregate level, we examine a global sample of 73 countries between 1981 and 2010, studying a broad set of drivers to investigate their interaction and influence on income inequality. Within this broad approach, we are interested in the heterogeneity of income inequality determinants across world regions and along the income distribution. Our findings indicate the existence of a small set of systematic drivers across the global sample of countries. Declining labour income shares and increasing imports from high-income countries significantly contribute to increasing income inequality, while taxation and imports from low-income countries exert countervailing effects. Our study reveals the region-specific impacts of technological change, financial globalisation, domestic financial deepening and public social spending. Most importantly, we do not find systematic evidence of education’s equalising effect across high- and low-income countries. Our results are largely robust to changing the underlying sources of income Ginis, but looking at different segments of income distribution reveals heterogeneous effects.

This paper reviews economic studies on the effects of various aspects of finance on labour market outcomes.

The paper is a systematic literature review that reviews the weight of the evidence on the relationships between specific elements of finance and labour outcomes. The review is divided into three major sections: (1) job quantity and job quality; (2) distributional effects; and (3) resilience and adaptability.

Finance interacts with labour market institutions to jointly determine labour outcomes. Firm financial structures influence their labour practices – highly leveraged firms show greater employment volatility during cyclical fluctuations, and leverage strengthens firm bargaining power in labour negotiations. Bank deregulation has mixed impacts on labour depending upon the state of prior bank regulations and labour markets. Leveraged buyouts tend to dampen acquired-firm job growth as they pursue labour productivity gains. The shareholder value movement may contribute to short-termism among corporate managers, which can divert funds away from firm capital accumulation toward financial markets, and crowd out productive investment. Declining wage shares of national income in most OECD countries since 1990 may be driven in part by financial globalisation. The financial sector contributes to rising income concentration near the top of the distribution in developed countries. The availability of finance is associated with increased reallocation of labour, which may either enhance or impede productivity growth. Finally, rising interest rate environments and homeowners with mortgage balances that exceed their home's value may reduce labour mobility rates.

This review contributes to the understanding of the effects of finance on labour by reviewing and synthesising a large volume of literature.

The impact of the “Great Recession” on inequality is unclear. Because the crises in the housing and stock markets and mass job loss affect incomes across the entire distribution, the overall impact on inequality is difficult to determine. Early speculation using a variety of narrow measures of earnings, income, and consumption yield contradictory results. In this chapter, we develop new estimates of income inequality based on “more complete income” (MCI), which augments standard income measures with those that are accrued from the ownership of wealth. We use the 1989–2007 Surveys of Consumer Finances, and also construct MCI measures for 2009 based on projections of assets, income, and earnings.

We investigate the level and trend in MCI inequality and compare it to other estimates of overall and “high incomes” in the literature. Compared to standard measures of income, MCI suggests higher levels of inequality and slightly larger increases in inequality over time. Several MCI-based inequality measures peaked in 2007 at their highest levels in 20 years. The combined impact of the Great Recession on the housing, stock, and labor markets after 2007 has reduced some measures of income inequality at the top of the MCI distribution. Despite declining from the 2007 peak, however, inequality remains as high as levels experienced earlier in the decade, and much higher than most points over the last 20 years. In the middle of the income distribution, the declines in income from wealth after 2007 were the result of diminished value of residential real estate; at the top of the distribution, declines in the value of business assets had the greatest impact.

We also assess the level and trend in the functional distribution of income between capital and labor, and find a rising share of income accruing to real capital or wealth from 1989 to 2007. The recent economic crisis has diminished the capital share back to levels from 2004. Contrary to the findings of other researchers, we find that the labor share of income among high-income groups declined between 1992 and 2007.

The purpose of this paper is to provide estimates of factor income shares for 79 developed, developing and transition economies representing close to 90 percent of the world output and to test for income share convergence.

The paper uses data from the United Nations National Accounts and World Bank World Development Indicator databases and the factor-income-share estimation methodology developed in Bernanke and Gurkaynak (2001) and Gollin (2002).

The authors estimate indicated that the average levels of capital income (profit) shares in developing and transition countries are 1.4-1.5 times higher than in developed economies. During the period studied, profit shares in all groups of countries trended upwards. As a result, the “global” profit share increased thus extending the “labor share squeeze” of the 1980s and 1990s.

The finding of persistent and significant differences in factor shares in countries of different development levels calls into question the assumption of uniform factor shares’ often made in studies of economic growth. The detection of a broadly based upward trend in profit shares has implications for studies of income distribution and inequality.

The paper's contribution is in providing updated estimates of factor income shares for the broad sample of countries, including in particular transition economies, not covered in previous studies; confirming the positive link between profit share and country's income level; countering claims of factor income convergence and establishing the upward trend in “global” profit share.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of the Protocol '93 bargaining model in favouring the slow‐down of the Italian economy and to design a correction.

The impact of the Protocol on factor income distribution is assessed through a deterministic dynamic model, and tested for the 1993‐2008 period. The paper explores theoretically and empirically the weakening of the incentives for both workers and employers to engage in fostering productivity.

In a macroeconomic setting with structural imbalance between the product and the labour markets reforms, the bargaining model has automatically increased up to 2002 the capital share in income, reducing the incentives for both social partners to accelerate productivity, as the labour share in income and the propensity to invest are co‐integrated (Johansen test). An analytical solution for correcting the bargaining distributive bias is proposed.

Further research should provide a picture of the different distributive behaviours of industrial sectors, particularly for industries exposed to/protected from international competition. The actual functioning of the new bargaining model (the Accordo Quadro of 2009) should also be assessed.

The bargaining model should be reformed so as to restore the right incentives for social partners. National industry‐wide wage bargaining should both incentivise and complement insufficient local bargaining.

The benefit of increased productivity and resumed growth has vast social implications, especially with reference to the sustainability of the welfare system.

The scientific literature has lacked any formal description of the dynamic operation of the Italian bargaining model, which is particularly valuable to both social partners and policy makers.

As globalization has influence on social sustainability mainly due to its effects on income distribution as well as labor share and profile at the local and global levels, sustainable development and globalization need to be examined from the social sustainability point of view. Social sustainability aspect of development and globalization is mainly affected by the income distribution and labor aspects. Labor share, degree of equality in the income distribution, labor competence, degree of elimination of child labor, degree of labor intensiveness in the production, labor's level of competence and productivity are among the main factors which can be influenced by globalization, its opportunities, and challenges as well as by its transformation into the postglobalization phase. These factors can influence social sustainability. In other words, there is a link and relationship among sustainable development, globalization, and postglobalization, income distribution and labor. Enhancing welfare of the societies and social sustainability necessitates focusing on the ways to achieve equality in the income distribution, and enhanced working conditions at the local and global levels across countries and industries. Based on an in-depth literature review, this chapter aims to assess and rethink sustainable development and globalization from the income distribution and labour aspects. Furthermore, this chapter covers and examines effects of globalization on low-income and developed countries. This chapter provides suggestions and recommendations on how to enhance welfare of the society at the local and global levels in the post-growth phase. This chapter is expected to be useful to policy makers, researchers, and academics.