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European Economic and Monetary Union’s perverse effects on sectoral wage inflation: Negative feedback effects from institutional change?

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  • Alison Johnston

Abstract

Public sector unions push for unmerited wage increases, exacerbating inflation and deficits. Despite this conventional wisdom, governments in several European countries successfully limited public sector wage growth during the 1980s and 1990s. This article argues that the recent rise in public sector wage inflation in the eurozone is an unintended consequence of the shift towards Economic and Monetary Union. I argue that monetary union’s predecessors, the European Monetary System and Maastricht, imposed an institutional constraint on governments, which enhanced their ability to impose moderation: national-level, inflation-averse central banks that could punish rent-seeking sectoral wage-setters via monetary contraction. Monetary union’s alteration of this constraint weakened governments’ capabilities to deny inflationary settlements.

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  • Alison Johnston, 2012. "European Economic and Monetary Union’s perverse effects on sectoral wage inflation: Negative feedback effects from institutional change?," European Union Politics, , vol. 13(3), pages 345-366, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:13:y:2012:i:3:p:345-366
    DOI: 10.1177/1465116512439114
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    Cited by:

    1. Greg Fuller & Alison Johnston & Aidan Regan, 2018. "Bringing the Household Back in. Comparative Capitalism and the Politics of Housing Markets," Working Papers 201807, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    2. Alison Johnston & Aidan Regan, 2016. "European Monetary Integration and the Incompatibility of National Varieties of Capitalism," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 318-336, March.
    3. Tim Vlandas, 2016. "The impact of the elderly on inflation rates in developed countries," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 107, European Institute, LSE.
    4. Höpner, Martin & Lutter, Mark, 2014. "One currency and many modes of wage formation: Why the eurozone is too heterogeneous for the euro," MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/14, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    5. Braakmann, Nils & Brandl, Bernd, 2016. "The Efficacy of Hybrid Collective Bargaining Systems: An Analysis of the Impact of Collective Bargaining on Company Performance in Europe," MPRA Paper 70025, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Johnston, Alison & Regan, Aidan, 2014. "European integration and the incompatibility of national varieties of capitalism problems with institutional divergence in a monetary union," MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/15, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    7. Paul Ramskogler, 2013. "The National–Transnational Wage-Setting Nexus in Europe: What have We Learned from the Early Years of Monetary Integration?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(5), pages 916-930, September.

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