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Labour markets across the globe have recently been characterized by rising wage inequality, real wage stagnation or both. Most academic work to date considers each in isolation, but the research in this paper attempts to pull them together, arguing that higher wage inequality takes on an added significance if real wages of the typical worker are not growing, and showing that inequality rises and real wage slowdowns have gone hand-in-hand with one another due to wages decoupling from productivity in the United States and United Kingdom. The lack of growth of real wages at the median in the United States is also shown to be linked to the declining influence of trade unions.

The Saint Valentine's Decree (1984) and the ensuing hard‐fought referendum (1985), which reduced the automatisms of scala mobile, started a process of redefinition of wage fixing in Italy, which culminated with the final abolition of scala mobile (1992) and the approval of Protocollo d'intesa (1993). Since then, following new corporatist principles, a national system of centralised wage bargaining (concertazione) and so‐called “institutional indexation” have governed the determination of wages. Does incomes policy generate greater coordination in the process of wage formation? Does it cause greater co‐movement of wages, prices, labour productivity and unemployment? This paper aims to answer these questions with reference to one of the G8 economies.

After testing for unit root each component by using the ADF, Phillips and Perron, DF‐GLS and Zivot and Andrews statistics, the paper tests for co‐integration the so‐called WPYE model using different methods. The Engle and Granger approach is used to assess the impact of incomes policy on the speed of adjustment of real wages, productivity (and unemployment) to their equilibrium value, while the Gregory and Hansen procedure serves as a means to endogenously detect the presence of a regime shift. The paper estimates coefficients before and after the structural break.

Incomes policy based on the 1993 Protocol has caused a regime shift in the process of wage determination. The long‐run estimates of the WPYE model do not generate stationary residuals except when a dummy for 1993 is added. The share of wages over GDP reduces by about ten percentage points in the early 1990s and has stood at about 57 per cent since 1995. The link with productivity is close to one‐to‐one only before the break. The feedback mechanism, as measured by the coefficient of lagged residuals in short‐run estimates, is increased from −0.46 in the pre‐reform to −0.79 in the post‐reform period, suggesting that incomes policy has increased real wage flexibility indeed. In recent years the link between real wages and (very low) labour productivity growth has weakened. In a sense, incomes policy has introduced a new form of (upward) wage rigidity. Last but not least, incomes policy has changed the correlation with the unemployment rate from positive to not statistically significant.

Future developments will focus on disentangling the impact of incomes policy vis‐à‐vis other policy interventions on WPYE and on unemployment.

The analysis calls for a careful revision of the 1993 Protocol aimed at better protecting the purchasing power of real wages without losing control on inflation, and introducing growth‐generating mechanisms.

The paper studies the impact of incomes policy on WPYE and the Phillips curve by means of co‐integration and structural break analysis. It proposes to interpret the effect of incomes policy on the Phillips curve as changing the coefficient of the error correction mechanism that leads real wages to their long‐run equilibrium value.

There exist long-term fluctuations in the process of capital accumulation. The economic long wave is an essential part of research into non-mainstream western economics. After the Second World War, the capitalist world experienced the fourth long wave of expansion and then entered into a downward phase of the long wave in the 1970s. Regarding to whether a new long wave of expansion took place in the 1980s, left-wing scholars hold different viewpoints. The purpose of this paper is to focus on this issue.

First, based on the review of the long wave history, this paper discusses three kinds of long wave theories with significant influence and puts forward the theoretical framework of analyzing the long wave of capitalist economy. Next, under the guidance of this theoretical framework and in combination with the actual development and evolution of the capitalist economy, the issue of whether the fifth long wave of the capitalist economy began to emerge in the 1980s is discussed deeply.

This paper argues that, from the early 1980s to 2007, the US-dominated developed countries experienced a new long wave of expansion driven by the information technology revolution, the adjustment of the neoliberalism system and the economic globalization. However, the financial-economic crisis of 2008–2009 led to a new phase of long wave downswing.

This paper does not agree with the single-factor analysis of the intrinsic formation mechanism of economic long wave and sticks to the multi-factor analysis centering on the fluctuation of accumulation rate. It is pointed out that the evolution of the long wave of capitalist economy depends on the combined influence of technology, institutions and market. The study of the long wave of the economy will help us to correctly understand the historical stage and characteristics of the current world capitalist economy in the long-term fluctuations, so that we can make an appropriate and positive response.

Following the extension of trade and capital market reform in Mexico in the mid‐1980s, manufactured exports accelerated at an exponential rate. In spite of this remarkable performance, the Trade and Current Accounts remained consistently negative, manufacturing as a share of GDP stagnated, and the share of the labour force in manufacturing diminished. Unexpectedly, Mexico's abundant and majority less‐skilled workforce experienced a worsening in the conditions of employment. In the context of trade opening and neo‐liberal reform, inherent market failures involving imperfect information and increasing returns technologies interacted with a ‘maquila’ and a service sector mode—the locus of foreign direct investment—and accounted for the contradictions.

The Dominican trade deficit represents almost 16 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) and is insufficiently counteracted by tourism and remittances; not even a high devaluation closed the imbalance. Eighty per cent of the exports are from free trade zones. These facts reflect their low domestic entrepreneurial capacity. The purpose of this study is to critically evaluate the Dominican economic model.

The author motivates the discussion with descriptive statistics and then applies multiple time-series regressions at the macro level and at the industry level.

The attraction of foreign firms appears to substitute, and not complement, the building of local capacity. Regressions show that a GDP growth of 5 per cent does not decrease the high unemployment rate.

Using new Okun’s equations, it is concluded that sectors dominated by local producers and improvements in the trade balance better impact the unemployment. These findings challenge conventional wisdom that characterizes the Dominican economy as a “successful story”.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how the voluntary living wage (LW) in the UK is set. It examines how this calculation relates to contemporary approaches to setting wage floors, both in relation to their goal of supporting adequate living standards and in relation to the place of wage floors in the labour mark.

The paper examines how compulsory and voluntary wage floors are being determined, in the UK and in particular the role of public consensus in contributing to the calculation and adoption of a LW. It then reflects on the future sustainability of a system of wage floors in which the concept of the LW plays a significant role.

The central finding is that widespread support for wages delivering socially acceptable minimum living standards has transformed the context in which low pay is being addressed in the UK. The LW idea has stimulated more decisive efforts to do so; however, if a compulsory version of a LW were to reach a level shown to be harming jobs, this could seriously undermine such efforts. Moreover, the extent to which adequate wages are compatible with high employment levels can also be influenced by state support for households, especially tax credits and Universal Credit.

The paper clarifies how the setting of the UK LW contributes to objectives related both to living standards and to labour markets, and critically addresses some key issues raised.

It is commonly argued that many economies must look toward a service‐based future. This article discusses the role of the service sector in generating economic growth and employment. It is argued that defining, measuring and distinguishing service output as opposed to output of goods has become increasingly difficult, which makes the traditional attempts to define a specific role for the service sector more or less futile. Instead, the diverse activities performed within the service sector form an integral part of a well‐functioning economy as a whole. Moreover, there is nothing inherently “wrong” with service sector jobs: recent experience suggests that the service sector has generated disproportionately both good quality, well‐paid jobs, as well as those in the lowest category. Worrying about the relative size of the service sector helps us little: what matters is each sector’s contribution to overall productivity growth.

A review of recent notable research on socioeconomic inequality, including Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014), Rebecca Blank’s Changing Inequality (2011), Joseph Stiglitz’s The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future (2013), and Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger (2010).

I critically compare the contributions of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Joseph Stiglitz’s The Price of Inequality, Rebecca Blank’s Changing Inequality, and Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s The Spirit Level. The comparison is focused largely on discerning analytical trends in studies of inequality and differential relationships with capitalism.

Popular scholarship on inequality is surprisingly diverse with varying analytical approaches and conclusions represented. Each of the works was consistent with regard to important role of the state as a mitigating institution.

The intent of these works was to engage the general public on the subject of economic inequality. Thus, it is important to know what information is being disseminated in a general sense and how this “public political economy” might influence popular views on inequality.

Comparative reviews of scholarship intended for general popular consumption are rare. Postrecession economic realities have driven inequality to the fore in many advanced capitalist societies making such a review timely as well.