Giammario Impullitti

Reminder call for all PhD students & Postdocs! Join the Nottingham International Trade Summer School from 30 June - 5 July. Explore #trade insights with leading experts, present research, network with peers & attend a leading workshop in the field. For details 👉 www.nottingham.ac.uk/gep/news-eve...

30.04.2025 10:37 — 👍 1    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

We had a fantastic GEP/CEPR PhD Conference with a great keynote speech by @imanelici.bsky.social!

Congratulations to @hubertmassoni.bsky.social and Cristian Espinosa for sharing the Best Paper Award!

The international trade field has a bright future ahead!

www.nottingham.ac.uk/gep/news-eve...

25.04.2025 18:40 — 👍 15    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Why Rising Markups Hurt Innovation and Widen Inequality - ProMarket Over the past four decades, the United States has seen rising market power, slowing productivity growth, and deepening wealth inequality. In new research, Giammario Impullitti and Pontus Rendahl explo...

Over the past 40 years, the US has seen rising market power, slowing productivity growth, and deepening wealth inequality. @gimpulli.bsky.social (@uniofnottingham.bsky.social) and Pontus Rendahl explore how declining competition may be the common culprit.

Originally featured in VoxEU.

19.03.2025 14:08 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Non-technical write-up of my work with Pontus Rendahl on the impact of market power on economic growth and wealth inequality.

13.03.2025 16:15 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The consequences for households wellbeing? The poor get hit with a double whammy—stagnant wages and a rising wealth gap. Meanwhile, the top 1% (especially the top 0.1%) keep pulling ahead.

05.02.2025 12:52 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Market power also crushes wages. Less competition means profits take a bigger share, while lower productivity growth weakens future wage increases.

05.02.2025 12:51 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

In contrast, low-income households, reliant on wages and lacking substantial savings, see little benefit. Many cannot save at all or only save for emergencies, making them less responsive to rising returns.

05.02.2025 12:51 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Why? Because the rich and poor react differently to changes in returns. The wealthy, who own most assets, benefit directly from higher returns, compounding their wealth.

05.02.2025 12:51 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

As firms gain dominance, markups increase, driving up corporate profits and boosting asset returns (r). Meanwhile, reduced competition stifles innovation and productivity growth (g). This widening gap between asset returns and economic growth—r - g—exacerbates wealth inequality.

05.02.2025 12:50 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

DP19911 Market power, growth, and wealth inequality In recent decades, the United States has experienced a notable rise in markups, a slowdown in productivity growth, and an increase in wealth inequality. We present a framework that unifies these trends into a common driving force. In particular, increased barriers to entry raises markups and boost corporate profits. Rising profits elevates firm valuations, fuels the demand for capital, and drives up asset returns. At the same time, the reduction in competition stifles overall economic growth. Wealth inequality is shaped by the return gap, r-g, which represents the difference between asset returns and the economy’s growth rate. The rise in capital demand together with a reduction in growth leads to a widening of the return gap, which amplifies inequality by affecting the saving patterns of households in different ways across the wealth distribution, deepening the divide between the rich and the poor. These trends result in substantial welfare losses for the majority of households, while only the top 1%, and especially the top 0.1% experience gains.

How does rising market power affect growth and the distribution of wealth? With
@pontus_rendahl
we explore these links in our new paper, cepr.org/publications..., @cepr.org
#growth, #inequality, #markups. A thread.

05.02.2025 12:50 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 5    📌 0