Roland Winkler

Thanks to @iwh-halle.bsky.social for organizing the annual CGDE workshop. Two days of strong presentations by PhD students from @tudresden.bsky.social, Ifo Dresden, @iwh-halle.bsky.social, @unihalle.bsky.social, @uni-jena.de, @unileipzig.bsky.social, and @uni-magdeburg.de.

8/ Why you might care (even beyond fiscal): macro models routinely feature price markups; the labour-market analogue—monopsony power / wage markdowns—is less often central, and even less often modeled as an endogenous object moving over the cycle. We show it can matter for transmission.

7/ We also provide empirical evidence consistent with the story: after an unexpected increase in government spending (U.S., 1981Q3–2019Q4), output and hours rise, and a separations-based proxy indicates lower employer market power.

6/ Quantitatively: one year after the shock, close to 40% of the employment effect is due to the reduction in firms’ labour-market power.

5/ As labour supply becomes more wage-elastic, firms’ wage-setting power declines and wage markdowns compress. This strengthens the responses of wages, employment, and output to spending shocks.

4/ Key mechanism: a government spending increase implies a higher tax burden (now or later), which raises the marginal valuation of income. Workers become more willing to trade off amenities for wages → labour supply to each firm becomes more wage-elastic.

3/ What we do: we study a fiscal transmission channel that runs through labour-market power. We build a model with job differentiation along non-wage amenities → firms have monopsony-style wage-setting power because workers don’t treat all jobs as perfect substitutes.

2/ Many thanks to my coauthors, and to the referees + our editor @fpj-portier.bsky.social for a constructive process and very clear guidance throughout.

Labour Market Power and the Effects of Fiscal Policy* Abstract. We propose a new fiscal transmission channel based on countercyclical monopsony power in the labour market. We develop a New Keynesian model inco

1/ 🎉 Happy to share: our paper “Labour Market Power and the Effects of Fiscal Policy” (Christian Bredemeier, @uni-wuppertal.bsky.social & @iza.org; Babette Jansen, @uantwerpen.be ; and @rwinkler.bsky.social, @uni-jena.de ) has been accepted at @theeconjournal.bsky.social

#Economics #EconSky

🎉🎓Congrats to Patrick Ndlovu on successfully defending his PhD thesis at Antwerp University! Jury: S. Vujić & @rolandwinkler.bsky.social (supervisors), K. Cygan-Rehm, C. Bredemeier, S. Maes, and S. Cosaert (chair).

Wishing Patrick all the best as AP at Concordia University Edmonton!

Congratulations!

Job Market We are looking forward to receiving your application!

🚨 One week left to apply—deadline Dec 1!
We’re hiring two W1 Assistant Professors (f,m,d):
1️⃣ Finance & Labor
2️⃣ Macroeconomics, Productivity Dynamics
📍 Joint appointments by Uni Jena & @iwh-halle.bsky.social.
📩 Apply now via econjobmarket.org — come work with us!
www.uni-jena.de/en/122166/jo...

🎉 🍾 🎓 Congratulations to Tommaso Bighelli on successfully defending his PhD on "Essays on Firms and Market Performance" at @uni-jena.de Jury: Javier Miranda (supervisor), Marc Melitz, Huyen Nguyen, Bernd Hüfner, Roland Winkler. A big thank you to @iwh-halle.bsky.social for hosting the event. 👏