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Distributive Struggle and Economic Development in the 1970s in Developed Capitalist Countries *
Author(s) -
PALOHEIMO HEIKKI
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1984.tb00815.x
Subject(s) - economics , unemployment , distributive property , inflation (cosmology) , distributive justice , currency , profit (economics) , full employment , labour economics , monetary economics , macroeconomics , mathematics , neoclassical economics , pure mathematics , physics , theoretical physics , microeconomics , economic justice
The intensity of the distributive struggle is an important determinant in explaining cross‐national differences in unemployment and inflation during the economic crisis of the 1970s. Unemployment is analysed as a result of corporate actions to counter the falling rate of profit. In countries with a high level of distributive struggle, the reduction of the labour force has been the main method of coping with problems of profitability. In countries with a low level of distributive struggle, other methods have also been used. Production costs have been stabilized by means of moderate incomes policy and by revaluing the currency. As a result of these policy differences, both the rates of unemployment and inflation were moderate in countries with a low level of distributive struggle, while countries with a high level faced severe problems of unemployment and inflation.