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Labour Market Flexibility and Decentralisation as Barriers to High Employment? Notes on Employer Collusion, Centralised Wage Bargaining and Aggregate Employment

In: Labour Relations and Economic Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Bowles
  • Robert Boyer

Abstract

In the face of massive long-term unemployment, the early 1980s witnessed the resurgence of an old orthodoxy, based on two premises. First, mass unemployment results from the excess of wages with respect to productivity. Secondly, this should be removed, via reforms of industrial relations: enhancing market mechanisms would be the best method to promote the required adjustment towards fuller employment. Academic researches and an impressive array of official reports have promoted (OCDE, 1986) or discussed this general view (BIT, 1987; Boyer, 1988). The related strategies have tentatively been applied in most OECD countries, with varying degrees of intensity and with contrasting results. For example, the outstanding job creation in the USA has been related to the significant flexibility and highly competitive nature of the American labour market, whereas the poor performance of much of Europe is frequently attributed to labour market rigidities, partly linked to the role of unions and state regulations.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Bowles & Robert Boyer, 1990. "Labour Market Flexibility and Decentralisation as Barriers to High Employment? Notes on Employer Collusion, Centralised Wage Bargaining and Aggregate Employment," International Economic Association Series, in: Renato Brunetta & Carlo Dell’Aringa (ed.), Labour Relations and Economic Performance, chapter 13, pages 325-352, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:intecp:978-1-349-11562-4_13
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-11562-4_13
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Boyer, Robert, 2000. "The French welfare : an institutional and historical analysis in European perspective," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Couverture Orange) 0007, CEPREMAP.
    2. Gatti, Donatella, 1998. "The equilibrium rate of unemployment in varying micro-institutional settings," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economic Change and Employment FS I 98-302, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    3. Gatti, Donatella, 1998. "Unemployment and innovation patterns: the role of business coordination and market competition," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economic Change and Employment FS I 98-306, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    4. D. Gatti, 1997. "Flexible Technology, Unemployment and Effort: The Role of the Organization of the Firm," Working Papers ir97004, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.

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