In the long term, it is high and increasing unemployment which constitutes the key determinant for a decline in the adjusted wage share and the real unit labour costs. Economic growth plays a similarly important role. Higher investment will increase the profit share. Countries whose economy and...

There is growing concern in Europe over the impact of globalization on high and evenly shared living standards. These concerns have often surfaced in response to falling labor income shares in aggregate national income data. However, these data may tell little about the underlying distribution...

We explore the relationship between union density and labor’s shares using panel data on 35 industries, spanning the entire US economy, for the years 1983 through 2005. For the full sample, a standard deviation increase in union density (membership or coverage rates) is associated with an...

The paper examines the distributional consequences of financial crises based on the lessons of the past crises experiences of Argentina, Brazil, Korea, Mexico, and Turkey. It identifies the possible channels through which crises may affect functional and personal distribution of income. It...

Despite the “growth miracle” of recent decades, labor's share, i.e., the share of total labor compensation in GDP, has decreased in China. Labor's share is an important indicator of the primary distribution of national income, and its fall has drawn significant attention from researchers and...

This paper provides a critical review of the recent literature on inequality and growth. After discussing historical and more recent distributional trends as well as empirical evidence on the relationship between inequality and growth, I focus on recent explanations of the inequality-growth...

In seiner Replik zu Jürgen Kromphardts "Gegen-Anmerkung" führt Hans-Werner Sinn aus, dass Kromphardts Aussagen über die Lohnstückkosten und die Erhöhung der Stückgewinne für sich genommen zwar korrekt, seine Schlussfolgerung, dass die höheren Stückgewinne auf einen unausgenutzten...