Changes in Functional Income Distribution in Italy and Europe

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the interpretation of the factors that have led to the fall in the labour share in Europe from a non-orthodox perspective, drawing on Classical and Keynesian traditions. It focuses first on the Italian experience and then extends the analysis to other major countries in the Euro area: Germany, France and Spain. The paper examines the role of relative price changes between business sector services and manufacturing in affecting the labour share and real wages in the two sectors. It then proceeds to historical and statistical analysis of the set of factors that have affected real wage growth in manufacturing and finds that institutional changes, unemployment, employment growth and changes in product per worker in terms of the consumer price index, taken together, explain very well real wage trends between 1962 and 2006 in Italy, Germany and Spain.Income distribution; Labour share; Real wages; Italian economy; European economies