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Weaknesses of 'wage-led growth'

Author

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  • Peter Skott

    (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA and Aalborg University, Denmark)

Abstract

The emphasis in post-Keynesian macroeconomics on wage- versus profit-led growth may not have been helpful. The profit share is not an exogenous variable, and the correlations between the profit share and economic growth can be positive for some exogenous shocks but negative for others. The terminology, second, suggests a unidirectional causality from distribution to aggregate demand while in fact distribution can itself be directly affected by shifts in aggregate demand. The reduced form correlations, third, depend on interactions with the labor market, and a focus on the goods market can be misleading. If, fourth, empirical estimates are taken at face value, the support for wage-led conclusions is much weaker than suggested by the literature. A focus on the growth benefits of a reduction in inequality, finally, makes for an impoverished policy discussion.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Skott, 2017. "Weaknesses of 'wage-led growth'," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 5(3), pages 336-359, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:rokejn:v:5:y:2017:i:3:p336-359
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    Cited by:

    1. Paul Auerbach & Peter Skott, 2021. "Visions of the future – a socialist departure from gloom?," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 74(298), pages 155-177.
    2. Yun K. Kim & Gilberto Tadeu Lima & Mark Setterfield, 2017. "Political Aspects of Household Debt," Working Papers 1724, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    3. Robert A. Blecker, 2016. "Wage-led versus profit-led demand regimes: the long and the short of it," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 4(4), pages 373-390, October.
    4. repec:osf:osfxxx:78kad_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Mark Setterfield, 2023. "Whatever Happened to the ‘Goodwin Pattern’? Profit Squeeze Dynamics in the Modern American Labour Market," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 263-286, January.
    6. Adam Aboobaker, 2024. "Hierarchical consumption preferences, redistribution, and structural transformation," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 33(2), pages 490-506.
    7. Jose Barrales‐Ruiz & Ivan Mendieta‐Muñoz & Codrina Rada & Daniele Tavani & Rudiger von Arnim, 2022. "The distributive cycle: Evidence and current debates," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 468-503, April.
    8. Daniele Tavani & Luke Petach, 2021. "Firm beliefs and long-run demand effects in a labor-constrained model of growth and distribution," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 353-377, April.
    9. Jochen Hartwig, 2018. "Wachstumsfolgen von Einkommensungleichheit – Theorie, empirische Evidenz und Politikempfehlungen," Chemnitz Economic Papers 020, Department of Economics, Chemnitz University of Technology.
    10. Daniel Velázquez Orihuela, 2023. "Distribución y crecimiento en economías abiertas: una explicación pos-kaleckiana," Apuntes del Cenes, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, vol. 42(75), pages 17-43.
    11. Gonzalez, Alejandro, 2024. "Bargaining power, demand growth and the decline of the labor share," OSF Preprints 78kad, Center for Open Science.
    12. Michaelis Nikiforos, 2018. "Distribution-led growth through methodological lenses," FMM Working Paper 24-2018, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    13. 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.
    14. Deepankar Basu, 2018. "Does the Steindl-Dutt Investment Function Rule Out Profit-Led Expansion?," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2018-06, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    15. Deepankar Basu & Leila Gautham, 2019. "What is the Impact of an Exogenous Shock to the Wage Share? VAR Results for the US Economy, 1973–2018," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2019-08, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    16. Abe Taro, 2020. "Dual-Labor Market and Unemployment Compensation," Economics, Sciendo, vol. 8(2), pages 21-35, December.
    17. Adam Aboobaker, 2022. "Macroeconomic Determinants of South Africa's Post-Apartheid Income Distribution," World Inequality Lab Working Papers halshs-03693225, HAL.
    18. Rada, Codrina & Tavani, Daniele & von Arnim, Rudiger & Zamparelli, Luca, 2023. "Classical and Keynesian models of inequality and stagnation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 442-461.
    19. Adam Aboobaker, 2022. "Macroeconomic Determinants of South Africa's Post-Apartheid Income Distribution," Working Papers halshs-03693225, HAL.
    20. Adam Aboobaker, 2019. "Disarticulation as a Constraint to Wage-led Growth in Dual Economies," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2019-11, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    21. Peter Skott, 2019. "Autonomous demand, Harrodian instability and the supply side," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(2), pages 233-246, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models

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