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

Samuel Bowles and Robert Boyer

Chapter 13 in Labour Relations and Economic Performance, 1990, pp 325-352 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Real Wage; Employment Rate; Unemployment Benefit; Full Employment; Labour Intensity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1990
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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-11562-4_13

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