Labour Market and distributive lop

Vol. 11 No. 3 (1991)

Jul-Sep / 1991
Published July 1, 1991
PDF-Portuguese (Português (Brasil))
PDF-Portuguese (Português (Brasil))

How to Cite

Amadeo, Edward J., and José Márcio Camargo. 1991. “Labour Market and Distributive Lop”. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 11 (3):326-41. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31571991-0837.

Labour Market and distributive lop

Edward J. Amadeo
Departamento de Economia da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro – PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brasil.
José Márcio Camargo
Departamento de Economia da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro – PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brasil.
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 11 No. 3 (1991), Jul-Sep / 1991, Pages 326-341

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of the segmentation of the labour and goods
markets over the dispersion of relative prices and wages in the Brazilian economy. The
theoretical argument is based in the behaviour of firms in the oligopolist and competitive
sectors of the economy, on one hand, and the behaviour of organized and non-organized
labour, on the other. We suggest that the negotiations between oligopolist firms and organized
labour can be seen as a positive-sum game; whereas a zero-sum game characterizes the
distribution of income in the economy as a whole. Hence, we conclude that there has been
a redistribution of income in favour of profits and wages of those agents operating in the
oligopolist sectors in detriment of the other agents in the economy.

JEL Classification: J31.


Keywords: Inflation wages unions