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Title: Technical Change and Superstar Effects: Evidence from the Roll-Out of Television

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2019

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Abstract: “Superstar effects” generate large compensation differentials among similarly talented individuals. Are superstar effects amplified by technological innovations that extend the scale over which talent is deployed? I test this idea in the market for entertainers, using the roll-out of television as a natural experiment which provides clean variation in a scale-related technological change. The launch of a local TV station increases top entertainers’ incomes, resulting in a twofold increase in top-percentile income share, while reducing employment and incomes of lower-level talents. These results show clear evidence of superstar effects and are inconsistent with canonical models of skill-biased technological change.

Url: http://personal.lse.ac.uk/koenigf/Superstars_Koenig.pdf

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Authors: Koenig, Felix

Publisher: Princeton University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Other

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