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Review Article

Inflation, wages and equality: cross-disciplinary conversations

Paul Edwards†Paul Edwards††

Paul Edwards is Emeritus Professor of Employment Relations, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and has served as the chair of the Academy’s Social Science Group.

,
Charles Baden-Fuller‡Charles Baden-Fuller‡‡

Charles Baden-Fuller is Centenary Professor of Strategy at Bayes Business School, City, University of London and Senior Fellow at the Wharton School. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Strategic Management Society.

,
Christopher Pissarides§Christopher Pissarides§§

Sir Christopher (Chris) Pissarides is a Cypriot economist and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is the Regius Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics (LSE), and Professor of European Studies at the University of Cyprus. His research focuses on topics of macroeconomics, notably labour, economic growth, and economic policy. In 2010, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, jointly with Peter A. Diamond and Dale Mortensen, for their analysis of markets with theory of search frictions.

,
Jill RuberyJill Rubery

Jill Rubery is a Professor of Comparative Employment Systems at Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on comparative analyses of employment systems with a specialisation in gender and labour market structure. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2006.

,
Colin Crouch**Colin Crouch****

Colin Crouch is sociologist and political scientist. He is professor emeritus of Warwick University Business School and an external scientific member of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, and a Fellow of the British Academy. His works on the crises of the 1970s include Class Conflict and the Industrial Relations Crisis (1977); edited, with Alessandro Pizzorno, The Resurgence of Class Conflict in Western Europe, two volumes (1978); The Politics of Industrial Relations (1979 and 1982); Trade Unions: the Logic of Collective Action (1982); and Industrial Relations and European State Traditions (1993).

,
Peter Taylor-Gooby††Peter Taylor-Gooby††††

Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is a Founding Academician at the Academy of Social Sciences and, previously, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sociology and Social Policy Section.

Abstract

Rising inflation and a wave of strikes during 2022 have aroused echoes of the 1970s. In this article, experts from the fields of economics, sociology and social policy consider what has changed, what remains the same, and what the lessons might be – with a notable degree of agreement. Raising wages, particularly for the lower-paid groups in the public sector, is likely to reduce poverty and has a very low risk of generating further price inflation. Giving in on pay will be costly, and may have to be funded by taxes in the short term. In the longer run the only way out of our difficulties will be more effective growth generated through improved productivity.

Keywords

Inflationwagespovertytrade unionsstrikesproductivity
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Published on: 10 March 2023
Volume: 11
Article ID: 025
Article view count: 47
Article download count: 0
Pages:25 - 41
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© The author(s) 2023. This is an open access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License
Cite this article
Edwards with Baden-Fuller, Pissarides, Rubery, Crouch, Taylor-Gooby (2023), ‘Inflation, wages and equality: cross-disciplinary conversations’, Journal of the British Academy, 11: 025 https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/011.025

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Review article

Normal View Dyslexic View

Inflation, wages and equality: cross-disciplinary conversations

Paul Edwards†Paul Edwards††

Paul Edwards is Emeritus Professor of Employment Relations, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and has served as the chair of the Academy’s Social Science Group.

,
Charles Baden-Fuller‡Charles Baden-Fuller‡‡

Charles Baden-Fuller is Centenary Professor of Strategy at Bayes Business School, City, University of London and Senior Fellow at the Wharton School. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Strategic Management Society.

,
Christopher Pissarides§Christopher Pissarides§§

Sir Christopher (Chris) Pissarides is a Cypriot economist and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is the Regius Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics (LSE), and Professor of European Studies at the University of Cyprus. His research focuses on topics of macroeconomics, notably labour, economic growth, and economic policy. In 2010, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, jointly with Peter A. Diamond and Dale Mortensen, for their analysis of markets with theory of search frictions.

,
Jill RuberyJill Rubery

Jill Rubery is a Professor of Comparative Employment Systems at Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on comparative analyses of employment systems with a specialisation in gender and labour market structure. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2006.

,
Colin Crouch**Colin Crouch****

Colin Crouch is sociologist and political scientist. He is professor emeritus of Warwick University Business School and an external scientific member of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, and a Fellow of the British Academy. His works on the crises of the 1970s include Class Conflict and the Industrial Relations Crisis (1977); edited, with Alessandro Pizzorno, The Resurgence of Class Conflict in Western Europe, two volumes (1978); The Politics of Industrial Relations (1979 and 1982); Trade Unions: the Logic of Collective Action (1982); and Industrial Relations and European State Traditions (1993).

,
Peter Taylor-Gooby††Peter Taylor-Gooby††††

Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is a Founding Academician at the Academy of Social Sciences and, previously, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sociology and Social Policy Section.