StreszczenieCelem artykułu jest zaprezentowanie oraz próba weryfikacji hipotezy, zgodnie z którą społeczeń-stwo musi dokonywać wyboru pomiędzy ograniczaniem nierówności dochodowych a efektywnością rynku pracy, przejawiającą się niskim poziomem bezrobocia i wysokim zatrudnieniem. Tak sformuło-wana hipoteza została wykorzystana przez Paula Krugmana do objaśnienia uwarunkowań funkcjonowania rynków pracy w USA i w Europie w połowie lat dziewięćdziesiątych XX wieku. Dowodził on wówczas, że negatywne szoki gospodarcze skutkują w krajach europejskich wzrostem bezrobocia, natomiast w USA wzrostem rozpiętości płac. Tymczasem odmienność reakcji wynika w głównej mierze ze zróżnicowania poziomu elastyczności rynku pracy, w tym przede wszystkim płac. W związku z tym, że hipoteza Paula Krugmana jest wciąż stosunkowo popularna, warto podejmować kolejne próby jej weryfikacji. W dotychczas prowadzonych badaniach jest powszechna dyskusja na temat przyczyn obserwowanego wzrostu zróżnicowania dochodów w większości społeczeństw, w której analizie są poddawane najczęściej takie zjawiska, jak: liberalizacja handlu międzynarodowego, postęp technologiczny promujący wysokie kwalifikacje (Skill-Biased Technical Change -SBTC) oraz deregulacja rynku pracy. Jednakże w badaniach tych stosunkowo rzadko dokonuje się empirycznej oceny związku pomiędzy zróżnicowaniem dochodów w społeczeństwie a warunkami funkcjonowania rynku pracy.Słowa kluczowe: zróżnicowanie dochodów, bezrobocie, hipoteza P. Krugmana
INCOME INEQUALITY AND EFFICIENCY OF LABOUR MARKET SummaryThe purpose of this paper is to present and test the hypothesis that every society has to make a choice between the limitation of income inequality, on the one hand, and labour market efficiency understood as low level of unemployment and high employment, on the other hand. This hypothesis was used by P. Krugman in mid 1990s to explain the performance of labour markets in the U.S. and Europe. He argued that negative economic shocks led to higher unemployment in Europe, whereas in the U.S. to greater income inequality. The different response to shocks is mainly due to the diversity of labour market flexibility, above all wage flexibility. Since Krugman`s hypothesis is still well-known, it is reasonable to re-examine it. Generally, a trend towards greater income inequality has been indicated in a number of studies. There has been considerable discussion of the factors related to this phenomenon, usually with emphasis on: liberalisation of international trade, skill-biased technical change -SBTC, labour market deregulation. However, only in a few studies economists take into consideration the correlation between unemployment (employment) rates and income inequality.
Growing income inequality currently poses a significant threat to sustainable development. Hence, it is important to monitor this phenomenon, in particular to identify determinants favouring the deepening of income inequality. One of the significant determinants in this respect is the declining labour income share in national income. The theoretical justification of the presumption of a negative relationship between the share of labour in the national income and income inequality has strong logical foundations. Existing studies indicate, however, some ambiguities as to the strength of this relationship and the existence of various factors cancelling this relationship. The following study attempts to verify the existence, direction, and intensity of the relationship between the labour income share and income inequality in a relatively homogeneous group of 33 OECD countries studied in 1990–2018. The main hypothesis verified in the study is the assumption that there is a negative relationship between labour share and income inequality. Our results show that the relationship between the share of employees’ and self-employed workers’ income in the national income and income inequality at the general level (i.e., in a group study of 33 countries in total) exists, is negative and statistically significant, but has a very small share in explaining the behaviour of income inequality.
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