We document that mean earnings of managers grow faster than for non managers over the life cycle for a group of high-income countries. Furthermore, we find that the growth of earnings for managers (relative to non managers) is positively correlated with output per worker across these countries....

We develop a span-of-control model where managerial skills are endogenous and the outcome of investments over the life cycle of managers. We calibrate this model to U.S plant-size data to quantify the effects of distortions that are correlated with the size of production units. These distortions...