Labour market developments are important drivers of the business cycle and are therefore closely watched by monetary policymakers. One process with significant macroeconomic ramifications are wage negotiations, where workers and employers bargain over the surplus income generated by an employment relationship. Bargaining power determines how this surplus is split between negotiating parties. However, it is unobserved, and can be driven by a number of factors.

It is important to understand the micro drivers of the economy’s reaction to large macro shocks. This column uses French firm-level data from 1993-2020 to study the contribution of the largest exporters to aggregate export fluctuations. The authors find that top exporters explained over 40% of aggregate fluctuations and drove the export collapses during the Global Crisis and the pandemic. Moreover, the 2020 collapse of French exports was driven by the higher sensitivity of large firms to demand shocks rather than disruptions to global value chains.

Increased import competition has been found to depress labour market outcomes, leading to pessimism that classic gains from trade are worth the accompanying labour market disruptions. This column examines the effect of the 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement. While Canadian workers suffered short-run displacement and earnings losses in response to increased import competition, long-run labour market outcomes, such as years worked and cumulative earnings, were largely unaffected.

As Russia’s invasion continues to ravage many parts of Ukraine, the flow of official statistical data has been erratic. This column outlines an alternative approach to measuring private consumption during war times, using aggregated bank micro-level data. Commercial banks have mostly remained operational during the war. Moreover, the electronic payment system has functioned unceasingly throughout the war period, providing stability of bank payments.