Labor's Share in Hungary

This paper examines labor's share of income in Hungary. We find that the trend in labor's share is substantially influenced by the treatment of self-employment; self-employment has declined significantly because of both shifts across sectors and reductions within sectors. Hungary's labor share has been roughly constant when labor compensation excludes the self-employed. The labor share with an imputation for the self-employed has declined, but data quality concerns and ambiguities surrounding the appropriate imputation make it difficult to reach definitive quantitative conclusions about the extent of the decline. Policymakers and researchers should be cautious in interpreting the apparent shifts in Hungary's labor share