欧洲的饥饿游戏:收入分配、成本竞争力与危机

Europe's Hunger Games: Income Distribution, Cost Competitiveness and Crisis

Cambridge Journal of Economics · 2014
被引 130 · 同刊同年前 8%
人大 A-ABS 3

中文导读

质疑主流观点,认为欧元区贸易失衡主要由国内外需求驱动,而非单位劳动力成本差异,主张通过恢复需求而非调整工资来重振增长。

Abstract

The dominant view, both on the mainstream right and on the left, holds that the Eurozone crisis is a crisis of labour-cost competitiveness—with trade imbalances (and hence foreign indebtedness) being driven by divergences in relative unit labour costs (RULCs) between surplus and deficit countries. To re-balance Eurozone growth, the mainstream solution is a deflationary policy of ‘internal devaluation’ (i.e. cutting the wage share by as much as 30%) in the deficit countries. The ‘pro-gressive ’ view holds that the surplus countries should adjust by raising their wage shares. We argue that both sides of this debate are wrong and unhelpful. Europe’s trade imbalances are determined by domestic and world demand—whilst RULC divergences play only a negligible role. Eurozone growth can only be revived when Eurozone demand growth is restored, not by lowering wages here and/or raising them there. The current deflationary adjustment forced on the wage-led economies

欧元区危机收入分配成本竞争力贸易失衡