Intended for

Researchers, economists, and policy practitioners.

Prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable with a Master's level course in econometrics.

Overview

In recent years there has been a renewal of interest in the idea of "monopsony" not just in labour economics but also in other fields. This course will review this rapidly growing area of research. It will provide an overview of the sources of employer market power and the different approaches that have been taken to estimate the extent of monopsony power (the "mark-down" of wages from marginal products). It will also review a number of areas where the monopsony perspective changes how we think about various issues, including competition policy, minimum wages, the gender pay gap, immigration agglomeration and the impact of trade unions.

Topics

Microfoundations for employer market power
Methods for estimating employer market power
Monopsony and Competition Policy
Monopsony, Wages, Wage Inequality, and the Labour Share
Applications of monopsony; minimum wages, gender pay gap, immigration, agglomeration, unions

Alan Manning is Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and is Co-director of the Centre for Economic Performance's research programme on Community and Wellbeing. From 2009 to 2012 he was Head of the Economics Department at LSE; from 2004 to 2011 he was a member of the NHS Pay Review Body, and from 2016 to 2020 the Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee. He is a labour market economist whose areas of research include monopsony (finding the right balance of power between workers and employers), immigration (the trade-offs involved in different immigration policies) and technology (how new technology affects the labour market).