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Power, Productivity, and Profits

In: Power, Freedom, and Voting

Author

Listed:
  • Frederick Guy

    (University of London)

  • Peter Skott

    (University of Massachusetts)

Abstract

A change in workplace technologies may affect the relative earnings of workers in at least two distinct ways. One is through the market for skill, the other through workers’ power in relation to their employers. Increases in earnings inequality since the late 1970s in many industrial economies — and in particular, in liberal market economies like the US and UK — have been explained by many economists as a consequence of skill-biased technological change (SBTC). However, the evidence cited for SBTC can be read instead as evidence that new technologies affect the distribution of earnings not through supply and demand, but through changes in the relative power of different groups of employees. The reasons for these changes are detailed in Guy (2003) and the implications are analyzed more formally by Guy and Skott (2005) and Skott and Guy (2007).

Suggested Citation

  • Frederick Guy & Peter Skott, 2008. "Power, Productivity, and Profits," Springer Books, in: Matthew Braham & Frank Steffen (ed.), Power, Freedom, and Voting, chapter 20, pages 385-403, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-540-73382-9_20
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-73382-9_20
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    13. Matias Ramirez & Frederick Guy & David Beale, 2007. "Contested Resources: Unions, Employers, and the Adoption of New Work Practices in US and UK Telecommunications," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 45(3), pages 495-517, September.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Immigration & wages: more evidence
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2008-11-03 23:42:02
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      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2009-02-08 17:15:00
    3. Economics as Feynman's onion
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2009-07-05 15:14:27
    4. The tendency for the rate of profit to rise
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2010-04-07 17:48:41
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      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2010-09-29 18:05:08
    6. Profits & top incomes
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2010-10-31 14:47:10
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      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2011-05-18 17:43:32
    8. Inequality & power
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2011-05-20 22:33:31
    9. Looks & earnings
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2011-05-16 20:23:21
    10. Monetizability
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2011-07-28 18:53:23
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      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2012-12-28 20:35:29
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      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2013-03-27 19:18:02
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    14. Ideologue? Moi?
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2015-12-09 20:09:53
    15. Bad arguments against Marxism
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    1. Jonathan F. Cogliano & Roberto Veneziani & Naoki Yoshihara, 2016. "The Dynamics of Exploitation and Class in Accumulation Economies," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 242-290, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Technical Change; Agency Problem; Unemployed Worker; Labor Relation Review; Earning Inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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