 Labour market policies and the productive lifeGeorge Kararach () Chapter 19 in Liberating Economics From Ideologies and Dystopia, 2025, pp 258-274 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: While labour is a commodity, there is a need to start from a fundamental theoretical perspective on whether labour is subject to the same market forces that apply to commodities in general in modern capitalist economies. It suggests that no spontaneous competitive force exists within capitalism that would adjust labour demand to its supply, in contrast to the adaptation of supply to the demand for commodities in general. This result is argued without reference to assumptions about inflexibilities or impediments in labour or other markets, or institutional features peculiar to “the labour market”. Its explanation of why labour markets are not clear is at odds with a core tenet underlying orthodox economic theory of the last century, which has acted as a fundamental benchmark for most theorising about labour to the present day. Rejection of this tenet is at the heart of a heterodox explanation of unemployment, the real wage and income distribution in modern capitalist economies. The construction of a social economy requires the development of this alternate understanding of labour market policies. Keywords: Labour markets; Labour supply; Heterodox approaches; Unemployment; Wages; Income distribution; Productive society (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22521_22 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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