中文摘要
扩大市场规模的技术变革能够产生赢者通吃动态，导致顶层收入者收入大幅增长。我在演艺人员劳动力市场中检验了这一“超级明星模型”，在该市场中，电视的历史普及在规模相关技术变革方面创造了一个自然实验。由此产生的不平等变化与超级明星理论一致：地方电视台的开播使演艺人员工资分布急剧右偏，对分布最顶端的影响最大，同时对明星水平以下的劳动者产生负面影响。研究结果提供了超级明星效应的证据，并将此类效应与流行的替代模型区分开来。 (JEL D31, J31, J44, L82, L88, O33)
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. (JEL D31, J31, J44, L82, L88, O33)