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The Employer Size-Wage Effect: Is Monopsony the Explanation?

Francis Green, Stephen Machin and Alan Manning


This paper looks at evidence on the employer size-wage effect for the UK using data from the General Household Survey, British Social Attitudes Survey and the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. We find that much larger effects in the non-union sector and for women. We consider various theoretical explanations for the size-wage effect and conclude that our findings are most consistent with a dynamic monopsony model.


June 1992     Paper Number CEPDP0079