IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/mpifgd/1719.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Unhinged: Industrial relations liberalization and capitalist instability

Author

Listed:
  • Baccaro, Lucio
  • Howell, Chris

Abstract

This paper makes two interrelated arguments. First, based on case studies of Sweden and Germany, it argues for a generalized liberalization trend in industrial relations, affecting not just "liberal" but also "coordinated" forms of capitalism. In coordinated economies, liberalization has not taken place primarily through outright deregulation, but has involved alternative mechanisms that increase employer discretion without fundamentally altering the form of existing institutions. Second, the paper links the liberalization of industrial relations to "secular stagnation" - i.e., to the growing difficulty that all advanced economies have in generating adequate levels of aggregate demand. It argues that strong unions and centralized collective bargaining were cornerstones of the wage-led Fordist model, and that the liberalization of industrial relations has undermined a crucial institutional channel for transmitting productivity increases into real wages and aggregate demand. Post-Fordist growth models are based on alternative drivers of growth, but they are all fundamentally unstable.

Suggested Citation

  • Baccaro, Lucio & Howell, Chris, 2017. "Unhinged: Industrial relations liberalization and capitalist instability," MPIfG Discussion Paper 17/19, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:1719
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/172298/1/1007209828.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Engelbert Stockhammer, 2009. "Determinants of functional income distribution in OECD countries," IMK Studies 05-2009, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    2. Atif Mian & Amir Sufi, 2011. "House Prices, Home Equity-Based Borrowing, and the US Household Leverage Crisis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 2132-2156, August.
    3. Dominique ANXO & Harald NIKLASSON, 2006. "The Swedish model in turbulent times: Decline or renaissance?," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 145(4), pages 339-371, December.
    4. Ozlem Onaran & Thomas Obst, 2016. "Wage-led growth in the EU15 member-states: the effects of income distribution on growth, investment, trade balance and inflation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 40(6), pages 1517-1551.
    5. Marc Lavoie, 2009. "Introduction to Post-Keynesian Economics," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-23548-9, December.
    6. Servaas Storm, 2017. "The New Normal: Demand, Secular Stagnation and the Vanishing Middle Class," Working Papers Series 55, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
    7. Marc Lavoie & Stockhammer Engelbert, 2013. "Wage-Led Growth: An Equitable Strategy for Economic Recovery," Post-Print hal-01343664, HAL.
    8. Özlem Onaran & Giorgos Galanis, 2014. "Income Distribution and Growth: A Global Model," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(10), pages 2489-2513, October.
    9. Lucio Baccaro & Jonas Pontusson, 2016. "Rethinking Comparative Political Economy," Politics & Society, , vol. 44(2), pages 175-207, June.
    10. Servaas Storm, 2017. "The New Normal: Demand, Secular Stagnation, and the Vanishing Middle Class," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(4), pages 169-210, October.
    11. Rehder, Britta, 2003. "Betriebliche Bündnisse für Arbeit in Deutschland: Mitbestimmung und Flächentarif im Wandel," Schriften aus dem Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Köln, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, volume 48, number 48.
    12. Lawrence H Summers, 2014. "U.S. Economic Prospects: Secular Stagnation, Hysteresis, and the Zero Lower Bound," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 49(2), pages 65-73, April.
    13. Michael Bruno & Jeffrey D. Sachs, 1985. "Economics of Worldwide Stagflation," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number brun85-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. João Alcobia & Ricardo Barradas, 2022. "Falling Labour Share and the Anaemic Growth in Portugal: a Post-Keynesian Econometric Analysis," Working Papers REM 2022/0247, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    2. João Alcobia & Ricardo Barradas, 2023. "Functional Income Distribution And Secular Stagnation In Europe: An Analysis Of The Post-Keynesian Growth Drivers," Working Papers REM 2023/0283, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    3. Eckhard Hein & Walter Paternesi Meloni & Pasquale Tridico, 2021. "Welfare models and demand-led growth regimes before and after the financial and economic crisis," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(5), pages 1196-1223, October.
    4. Stirati, Antonella & Paternesi Meloni, Walter, 2021. "Unemployment and the wage share: a long-run exploration for major mature economies," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 330-352.
    5. Baccaro, Lucio & Bremer, Björn & Neimanns, Erik, 2023. "What growth strategies do citizens want? Evidence from a new survey," MPIfG Discussion Paper 23/4, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    6. Walter Paternesi Meloni & Antonella Stirati, 2021. "What has driven the delinking of wages from productivity? A political economy-based investigation for high-income economies," Working Papers PKWP2104, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    7. Prante, Franz & Hein, Eckhard & Bramucci, Alessandro, 2021. "Varieties and interdependencies of demand and growth regimes in finance-dominated capitalism," IPE Working Papers 173/2021, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    8. Steven M Fazzari & Piero Ferri & Anna Maria Variato, 2020. "Demand-led growth and accommodating supply," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 44(3), pages 583-605.
    9. Walter Paternesi Meloni & Antonella Stirati, 2023. "The decoupling between labour compensation and productivity in high‐income countries: Why is the nexus broken?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(2), pages 425-463, June.
    10. Prante, Franz J., 2019. "Income distribution and the multiplier: An exploration of nonlinear distribution effects in linear Kaleckian distribution and growth models," IPE Working Papers 121/2019, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    11. Ciaffi, Giovanna & Deleidi, Matteo & Di Bucchianico, Stefano, 2024. "Stagnation despite ongoing innovation: Is R&D expenditure composition a missing link? An empirical analysis for the US (1948–2019)," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    12. Tim Jackson & Peter A Victor, 2021. "Confronting inequality in the “new normal”: Hyper‐capitalism, proto‐socialism, and post‐pandemic recovery," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 504-516, May.
    13. David Kiefer & Ivan Mendieta-Muñoz & Codrina Rada & Rudiger von Arnim, 2020. "Secular Stagnation and Income Distribution Dynamics," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(2), pages 189-207, June.
    14. Eckhard Hein & Judith Martschin, 2021. "Demand and growth regimes in finance-dominated capitalism and the role of the macroeconomic policy regime: a post-Keynesian comparative study on France, Germany, Italy and Spain before and after the G," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 493-527, December.
    15. Zamparelli, Luca, 2024. "On the positive relation between the wage share and labor productivity growth with endogenous size and direction of technical change," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    16. Eckhard Hein, 2017. "Post-Keynesian macroeconomics since the mid 1990s: main developments," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 14(2), pages 131-172, September.
    17. Eckhard Hein & Judith Martschin, 2020. "The Eurozone in Crisis — A Kaleckian Macroeconomic Regime and Policy Perspective," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 563-588, October.
    18. Zamparelli, Luca, 2022. "On Labor Productivity Growth and the Wage Share with Endogenous Size and Direction of Technical Change," MPRA Paper 112684, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Hein, Eckhard, 2020. "Financialisation and stagnation: A macroeconomic regime perspective," IPE Working Papers 149/2020, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    20. Andrea Coveri & Mario Pianta, 2019. "The Structural Dynamics of Income Distribution:Technology, Wages and Profits," Working Papers 1901, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2019.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    capitalism; liberalization; industrial relations; secular stagnation; Europe; Kapitalismus; Liberalisierung; industrielle Beziehungen; säkulare Stagnation; Europa;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:1719. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mpigfde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.