Data and Code for: Technical Change and Superstar Effects

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.能够扩大市场规模的技术变革可催生赢者通吃（winner-take-all）格局，使得高收入群体的收入实现大幅增长。本文以演艺人员劳动力市场为场景，对该超级明星模型（superstar model）展开检验——电视的历史性普及推广为与市场规模相关的技术变革构建了天然的自然实验。由此引发的收入不平等变化与超级明星理论高度契合：地方电视台的开播会使演艺人员的工资分布显著右偏，其最大影响作用于工资分布的顶端群体，同时对明星层级以下的从业者造成负面冲击。本研究结果为超级明星效应提供了实证支持，并将该效应与主流替代理论加以区分。