Technology may not be as important a cause of the declining share of income flowing to workers as previously thought, researchers say in a new working paper published by the Bank of England.

Germán Gutiérrez and Sophie Piton highlight a possible measurement problem. Estimates of the “labour share” typically seek to exclude housing income and self-employment, which can distort the results. But data on corporate labour shares still includes these two elements.

The issue is important as