贸易经济系学术讲座系列2021年第7讲

主 题：Large Firms and the Rising Share of Profits

主讲人: 徐铭梽 (北京大学)

协调人: 陈志远

时 间：2021-05-12 16:00

地 点：明商309教室

语 言：中英文

讲座摘要:

We examine the relationship between large firms and the rising profit share by building a model that features oligopolistic competition and consumer heterogeneity. Conditional on the sales distribution, the presence of consumer heterogeneity increases the profit share because it increases firm level markups. Using data on purchases at the household-barcode level from Nielsen, we quantify the role of consumer heterogeneity finding that markups and the profit share are 5% and 10% larger than those predicted by a model of a representative consumer. Furthermore, we find that the profit share has been increasing over time and that firm size and consumer heterogeneity both play a role in explaining the rise. We link firm size to consumer heterogeneity by showing that heterogeneity of geographic locations, retail stores, and taste accounts for 40% of the variation in product appeal, which is a key determinant of firm size. Finally, we show the relationship between product mix and consumer heterogeneity across firms. While smaller firms cater to the taste of few segments, typically the largest ones, larger firms exploit their wider scope to target a larger number of segments, both large and niche.

主讲人简介:

徐铭梽，北京大学新结构研究院助理教授。徐铭梽博士2012年于上海财经大学大学经济学院获得学士学位；2018年获得加州大学戴维斯分校获得博士学位。先后在美国经济研究局、哈佛肯尼迪学院担任博士后和访问研究员。徐铭梽博士主要从事国际贸易、产业组织、区域经济领域的研究工作，系列研究成果已发表于国际知名期刊如Economic Journal等。