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75 ILR Rev.: J. Work & Pol'y 3 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/ialrr75 and id is 1 raw text is: THE DEPENDENCY STRUCTURE OF BAD JOBS: HOW MARKET CONSTRAINT UNDERMINES JOB QUALITY RICHARD A. BENTON AND KI-JUNG KIM* WINNER OF THE BEST PAPER COMPETITION LERA /ILR REvmw SPECIAL SERIES IN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS Power and dependence in economic exchange shape industry struc- ture. When a focal industry faces powerful suppliers or buyers, this can reduce industry rents. The authors argue that these dynamics also affect job quality by reducing the economic surplus available to be shared with workers. Drawing on ideas from power-dependency theory, this article explains industry earnings and job quality differences by examining inter-industry exchange patterns. The authors build on Ronald Burt's seminal analysis of structural con- straint in economic exchange using industry input-output tables. They calculate market constraint measures for recent years in the United States and link these with CPS data on wages and benefits. Analyses reveal that workers in more buyer-constrained industries (dependence on powerful buyers) experience lower wages and benefits. Findings also show that market constraint reduces the eco- nomic surplus available for union bargaining. Theory and results sug- gest that market concentration reduces suppliers' economic rents, harming job quality. T he erosion of job quality and wage stagnation in the United States poses a persistent challenge for policymakers, academics, and the gen- eral public. Recent research on eroding job quality and stagnant wages have pointed to a number of causes, including skill-biased technological change, import competition, declining worker bargaining power, and increased *RICHARD A. BENTON ( https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-7954-6062) is an Assistant Professor at the School of Labor and Employment Relations, University of Illinois. KI-JUNG KIM is a PhD Student at the School of Labor and Employment Relations, University of Illinois. We thank Nathan Wilmers, Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, and Kevin Leicht for providing very helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 2018 annual meeting of the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA), at the Academy of Management, and at the Wharton People and Organizations Conference. An Online Appendix is available at http://jourtials.sagepub.comn/doi/suppl/10.1177_0019793920936250. For infor- mation regarding the data and/or computer programs used for this study, please address correspon- dence to rabenton@illinois.edu. KEYWORDS: wage inequality, job quality, market constraint, power-dependency, resource-dependency, monopoly, monopsony, precarious work, employment, social stratification, organizations ILR Review, 75(1), January 2022, pp. 3-27 DOI: 10.1177/0019793920936250. © The Author (s) 2020 Journal website: journals.sagepub.com/home/ilr Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions