Macroeconomic reasoning often postulates a uniform saving rate. Yet, this approach is only consistent with two special cases: either all households spend the same fraction of earnings or the shares in national income are held constant by assumption. Both premises lead astray. It is shown that...

Based on considerations concerning justice, average and minimum wages as well as unemployment aid are determined. The derived guidelines refer to net product and reflect 'reasonable' proportions between the income categories. Thus, deviations from the suggested principles may be classified as...

Proceeding form the optional outcome for a monopolistic trade union, the question is raised how a contract to the mutual benefit of employer and employees has to look like. The margins for an improvement for workers as well as entrepreneurs are traced out. Furthermore, a proposal of fair wages...

In this paper exact criteria are defined in order to identify a "fair" remuneration of the labour power. Due to this principle a point of reference is provided which makes it possible to refer to a "just" level of wages. Thus we are entitled to judge the factual pay as "too high" or "too low"....

More than 75 years ago, John Maynard Keynes wrote in his magnum opus: ‘The outstanding faults of the economic society in which we live are its failure to provide for full employment and its arbitrary and inequitable distribution of wealth and incomes’ (Keynes 1936 [1978]: 372). This...

Marx measures the degree of exploitation by the rate of surplus value. This is the ratio of (unpaid) surplus labour to so-called variable capital (v) comprising the workers’ remuneration. The denominator of the profit rate, however, additionally encompasses constant capital (c), which covers...

Die Mitgliedstaaten der Europäischen Wirtschafts- und Währungsunion sind verpflichtet, übermäßige öffentliche Defizite zu vermeiden. Die Einhaltung der Konvergenzkriterien bereitet jedoch immer mehr Mitgliedsländern Schwierigkeiten. Ist das starre Festhalten an den Kriterien sinnvoll?...

Aufgrund der hohen Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland wird von Seiten der Unternehmer sowie vieler Ökonomen eine Senkung der Löhne bzw. eine Ausweitung der Arbeitszeit gefordert. Doch welcher Anteil der Löhne am erwirtschafteten Nettoertrag wird von den Tarifparteien als fair angesehen? Wie hoch...