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Erik Bengtsson . Photo

Erik Bengtsson

Deputy head of the Department of Economic History, Senior lecturer

Erik Bengtsson . Photo

Lohnzurückhaltung und Lohnmilitanz: Belgien, Deutschland und die Niederlande, 1950–2010

Author

  • Erik Bengtsson

Summary, in English

This contribution questions the influential interpretation that strong unions and centralized wage bargaining facilitate wage restraint and that during the postwar period wage restraint was an important cause of strong economic growth performance. This view is contrasted with a power-oriented perspective that sees strong unions as conducive to redistribution from capital to labour, rather than wage restraint. The paper uses data on wages and productivity from 1950 to 2010 for Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, and shows that there has been more wage restraint after 1980 than before, and not more with more bargaining centralization. The results support the power-oriented understanding of wage bargaining institutions and suggest that the causes of wage restraint, its effects on investments and inequality should be reconsidered.

Department/s

  • Department of Economic History

Publishing year

2015

Language

German

Pages

272-279

Publication/Series

WSI-Mitteilungen

Volume

67

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Das Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Institut (WSI)

Topic

  • Economic History

Keywords

  • Entgelt/Tarifpolitik
  • Lohnpolitik
  • Industrielle Beziehungen
  • Einkommensverteilung

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0342-300X