Wage-Fixing (Routledge Revivals)

Wage-Fixing (Routledge Revivals)

by J. E. Meade
Released June 2013
Publisher(s): Routledge
ISBN: 9781136708619

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Book description

This reissue, first published in 1982, is the first of two volumes on the causes and cure of Stagflation - the two-headed monster that combines mass unemployment with rapid inflation, which affected contemporary economies across the industrially developped world in the 1970s.

Professor Meade outlines the nature of the problem, contrasting the Great Slump of the 1930s with the Great Stagflation of the 1970s and comparing the Orthodox Keynesian and Monetarist approaches with the New Keynesian strategy. Various proposals for the reform of wage-fixing institutions are discussed, including the limitation of trade-union bargaining powers, an official incomes policy, labour management and ownership in business, and tax or subsidy measures to discourage inflationary rises in wages and prices.  

The book will be essential reading for all concerned with both the theory and policy of contemporary macroeconomics, industrial relations, labour economics and labour law. It has been written so that the general argument in the main text is accessible to the general reader as well as of interest to the professional economist.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Full Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
  7. Dedication
  8. I Stagflation, or Making the Worst of Both Worlds
    1. 1 The Nature of the Disease
    2. 2 The Causes and Consequences of the Disease
    3. 3 The Cure of the Disease
    4. 4 Orthodox Keynesianism and New Keynesianism
    5. 5 Keynes versus the Monetarists
    6. 6 The Transitional Problem
    7. 7 The Meaning of Full Employment
    8. 8 Wages and the Distribution of Income
    9. 9 Conclusion
  9. II Effects of Wage-Fixing on Unemployment and Inflation
    1. 1 Wage-Fixing and Demand Management
    2. 2 Over-Ambitious Wage Claims
    3. 3 The Effect of the Oil Crisis
    4. 4 The Distribution of Wage Income
    5. 5 Wages and the Cost of Living
    6. 6 Conclusions
  10. III Other Criteria for Fixing Rates of Pay
    1. 1 Comparability
    2. 2 Productivity
    3. 3 Low Pay
    4. 4 Conclusions
  11. IV Imperfect Competition and the Case for Wage-Fixing Institutions
    1. 1 The Fairyland of Perfect Competition
    2. 2 Monopolistic and Monopsonistic Features of the Real World
    3. 3 A Single Employer in an Imperfect Labour Market: A Numerical Example
    4. 4 The Application of the Analysis to the Whole Economy
    5. 5 The Distribution of the Gains
    6. 6 Conclusion
  12. V The Existing Monopolistic Powers of Labour Organisation in the UK
    1. 1 Individual Contracts of Employment and Contracts to Perform a Service
    2. 2 Statutory Wage-Fixing Bodies
    3. 3 Statutory Provisions Directly Affecting the Individual Constract of Employment
    4. 4 The Formation of Trade Unions
    5. 5 The Membership of Trade Unions: The Closed Shop
    6. 6 The Exemption of Trade Unions from Certain Restraints of Monopolistic Action
    7. 7 Extension of the Scope of Wage Bargains
    8. 8 Picketing
    9. 9 Adjudication and Enforcement
    10. 10 Social Security Provisions
    11. 11 Conclusion
  13. VI The Role of Competition in the Labour Market
    1. 1 Some Further Reasons for Intervention in the Labour Market
    2. 2 The Case for a Decentralised System for Wage-Fixing
    3. 3 One Union for Each Employer
    4. 4 A General Limitation of Trade Union Powers
    5. 5 Increased Mobility of Labour
    6. 6 Conclusion
  14. VII A Centralised Incomes Policy
    1. 1 Centralised Wage Guidance
    2. 2 Centralised Wage-Fixing
    3. 3 The Adjustment of Relativities
    4. 4 An Intermediate System
    5. 5 Conclusions
  15. VIII Not-Quite-Compulsory Arbitration
    1. 1 The Promotion of Employment through Arbitration
    2. 2 The Need for a Single Permanent Arbitral Body
    3. 3 Avoidance of Abrupt Changes
    4. 4 Two Possible Variations on the Scheme
    5. 5 The Need for General Acceptance
    6. 6 The Problem of Sanctions
    7. 7 Conclusions
  16. IX Labour Co-operatives, Labour—Capital Partnerships, and Profit-Sharing Schemes
    1. 1 The Case for Competitive Labour Co-operatives
    2. 2 Labour Co-operatives and the Scale of Production
    3. 3 The Implications of the Egalitarian Principle
    4. 4 Labour Co-operatives and Capital Intensity
    5. 5 Competitive Labour Co-operatives as a Cure for Stagflation
    6. 6 The Crucial Role of New Co-operatives
    7. 7 The Case for Inegalitarian Labour—Capital Partnerships
    8. 8 Conflicts of Interest in Labour—Capital Partnerships
    9. 9 Conclusions
  17. X Fiscal Devices for the Control of Inflation
    1. 1 A Great Variety of Devices
    2. 2 A Scheme for Control of Price Inflation
    3. 3 Administrative Problems of a Price-Control Scheme
    4. 4 A Self-Balancing Scheme
    5. 5 The Efficacy of a Scheme for Control of Price Inflation
    6. 6 A Scheme for the Control of Wage Inflation
    7. 7 The Direct Effect of the Schemes on Money Wage Settlements
    8. 8 Conclusions
  18. XI Summary of Conclusions: The Way Ahead
  19. Appendix A The Inflationary Implications of Orthodox Keynesian Demand Management for Full Employment Combined with Wage Settlements Designed to Achieve an Over-Ambitious Real Wage
  20. Appendix B The Effect of New Keynesian Demand Management Combined with Wage Settlements Aimed at (1) an Over-Ambitious Standard of Living or (2) the Promotion of Employment
  21. Appendix C Two Models of Fiscal Devices for the Control of Cost-Push Inflation
  22. Appendix D The Legal Background to the Restraint of Monopolistic Behaviour in the UK
  23. Appendix E Further Problems of Labour Co-operatives and Capital—Labour Partnerships
  24. Index

Product information

  • Title: Wage-Fixing (Routledge Revivals)
  • Author(s): J. E. Meade
  • Release date: June 2013
  • Publisher(s): Routledge
  • ISBN: 9781136708619