Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/250639 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14978
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Technical change that extends market scale can generate winner-take-all dynamics, with large income growth among top earners. I test this "superstar model" in the entertainer labor market, where the historic rollout of television creates a natural experiment in scale-related technological change. The resulting inequality changes are consistent with superstar theory: the launch of a local TV station skews the entertainer wage distribution sharply to the right, with the biggest impact at the very top of the distribution, while negatively impacting workers below the star level. The findings provide evidence of superstar effects and distinguish such effects from popular alternative models.
Subjects: 
superstar effect
inequality
top incomes
technical change
JEL: 
J31
J23
O33
D31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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