Is There Monopsony in the Labor Market? Evidence from a Natural Experiment
- 1 April 2010
- journal article
- Published by University of Chicago Press in Journal of Labor Economics
- Vol. 28 (2), 211-236
- https://doi.org/10.1086/652734
Abstract
Recent theoretical and empirical advances have renewed interest in monopsonistic models of the labor market. However, there is little direct empirical support for these models. We use an exogenous change in wages at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals as a natural experiment to investigate the extent of monopsony in the nurse labor market. We estimate that labor supply to individual hospitals is quite inelastic, with short-run elasticity around 0.1. We also find that non-VA hospitals responded to the VA wage change by changing their own wages. (c) 2010 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved..Keywords
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