How Costly Are Markups?

S-Tier
Journal: Journal of Political Economy
Year: 2023
Volume: 131
Issue: 7
Pages: 1619 - 1675

Authors (3)

Chris Edmond (University of Melbourne) Virgiliu Midrigan (not in RePEc) Daniel Yi Xu (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

2.681 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We study the welfare costs of markups in a dynamic model with heterogeneous firms and endogenous markups. We provide aggregation results summarizing the macro implications of micro-level markup heterogeneity. We calibrate our model to US Census of Manufactures data and find that the costs of markups can be large. We decompose the costs into three channels: an aggregate markup that acts like a uniform output tax, misallocation of factors of production, and inefficient entry. We find that the aggregate-markup and misallocation channels account for most of the costs of markups and that the entry channel is much less important.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/722986
Journal Field
General
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-25