When Economic Crises Endure

by Mazier,Jacques

• ISBN13: 9781563245688
• ISBN10: 156324568X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-05-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This work represents the French Regulation School approach to the study of economics. Regulationists focus on the long-term evolution of capitalist economies with a strong emphasis on cross-country comparisons. Their theory centers on the notion of "accumulation regimes", a concept that analyzes long-wave growth patterns and how those patterns were shaped by five key regulatory mechanisms: 1) forms of competition; 2) the socio-technical system covering all aspects of the capital-labor relation; 3) money; 4) forms of state intervention; and 5) arrangements regulating international economic relations. Methodologically, their approach is very flexible and innovative, ranging from econometric models to interdisciplinary studies.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	xi	(4)
List of Figures	xv	(2)
Acronyms and Abbreviations	xvii	(2)
Preface to the English Translation	xix	(2)
Introduction	xxi
PART I. GROWTH AND REGULATION	3	(84)
1. From Extensive to Intensive Accumulation	3	(22)
Growth and Accumulation: An Initial Overview	4	(3)
Extensive or Intensive Accumulation?	7	(8)
The Aims of Taylorism and Fordism	7	(2)
Limited Productivity Gains in France Until 1938	9	(2)
The Pioneering Role of the United States and the Unequal Development of Intensive Accumulation	11	(3)
The Long-Term Output per Capital Ratio	14	(1)
Econometric Analysis	15	(10)
Nature of the Breaks in France Following the Two World Wars	17	(2)
The Case of the Other Major Countries	19	(6)
2. Wage Formation and Consumption Standard	25	(18)
Wages and the Transformation of Wage Relations	25	(4)
Key Stages in the Evolution of the Wage Income	25	(2)
The Transformation of Wage Relations	27	(2)
Wage Formation: From Competitive Regulation to Administered Regulation	29	(9)
Wage Income and the Adjustment of Employment	29	(3)
Wages in France: From Competitive to Monopolistic Regulation	32	(1)
United States: Precocious Indexation but Persistence of More Competitive Regulation	33	(1)
United Kingdom: Precocious Monopolistic Regulation	34	(2)
Germany: Growing Indexation but Persistence of Greater Wage Flexibility	36	(2)
Wage Relation and Consumption Standards	38	(5)
The Emergence of a New Consumption Standard	38	(2)
Relative Prices, Production Conditions, and Consumption Standard	40	(3)
3. Price, Profit, and Accumulation	43	(18)
Inflation, Forms of Competition, and Monetary Regime	43	(7)
The Development of the Inflationary Process	43	(1)
Concentration and Forms of Competition	44	(2)
Monetary Regime and Financing of Accumulation	46	(4)
Price, Profit, and Investment: An Econometric Study	50	(4)
The Mechanisms of Price Formation: The Shift to Monopolistic Regulation	50	(2)
The Determinants of Capital Accumulation: Profits and Outlets	52	(2)
Wage-Profit Division and Profitability: The Long-Term Dynamic	54	(7)
Stability of the Share of Wages over the Long Term	54	(3)
The Long-Term Dynamic of the Rate of Profit	57	(4)
4. International Economic Relations and the Internal Dynamic	61	(26)
Long-Term Changes in the International Economy	61	(14)
The International Growth Regime and Its Transformations	62	(6)
Changes in International Regulation	68	(7)
Analysis of the Main Determinants of Competitiveness	75	(12)
Mastery of the Domestic Market	75	(2)
Exports, Devaluation, Regulation	77	(5)
Nonprice Competitiveness	82	(5)
PART II. STRUCTURAL CRISES: WHY AND HOW?	87	(154)
5. Origins of the Interwar Crisis	87	(23)
United States: Real Factors Often Underestimated	87	(11)
The Debate on Monetary Policy and Credit	88	(3)
From Financial Variables to Real Variables: Household Expenditures	91	(3)
Household Expenditure and Income: Long-Term Evolution	94	(4)
Germany: The Impossible Compromise	98	(5)
Premature Recession	98	(2)
Role of Economic Policy	100	(3)
France: A Dynamic Out of Step	103	(5)
The Role of Prices and World Trade	108	(2)
6. The Crisis of Intensive Accumulation	110	(22)
National Factors in the Accumulation Crisis	110	(15)
Declining Productivity	110	(6)
Wage-Profit Division and the Profitability of Capital: Growing Tensions in the Early 1970s	116	(4)
Relative Erosion of Growth Factors	120	(1)
Indebtedness, Assistance to Firms, and Inflation: Counter-Trends at Work	121	(4)
Internationalization and Crisis	125	(7)
The Questioning of American Hegemony and the Crisis of the International Monetary System	126	(1)
Internationalization and the Questioning of the Prior Logic of Growth	126	(2)
Effects of the Rise in Oil Prices	128	(4)
7. The 1930s: Fascism or Fordism?	132	(10)
Exchange Rate and the Response to External Constraint	133	(4)
Increased Government Intervention and Public Spending	137	(1)
Transformations of the Wage Relation	138	(4)
8. The 1970s: The End of Growth and the Persistence of Regulation Modes	142	(25)
The End of Growth	142	(8)
Freeze in Accumulation and Profitability Crisis	143	(4)
Absence of a Cumulative Decline	147	(3)
Sharp Disparities in Inflation	150	(5)
Sharp Contrasts in the Fixing of the Nominal Wage	152	(2)
Uneven Inflationary Consequences of the Slowdown in Labor Productivity	154	(1)
Defense of the Markup Rate and Inflation of Profit	154	(1)
Different Forms of Adaptation Through Exchange Rate and International Specialization	155	(12)
Greater External Constraint for the Least Specialized Countries	156	(2)
Rates of Exchange and External Constraint	158	(9)
9. From the 1970s to the 1980s: Contrasting Country Models	167	(33)
Experiments in Deregulation: The United States and the United Kingdom	170	(8)
The United States: In Search of a New Form of Growth	170	(6)
The United Kingdom: A Bifurcation Toward Deregulation and Continued Decline	176	(2)
The Case of the Social Market Economy and Social Democracy: An Orderly Regulation	178	(7)
West Germany: Slow Growth, Strong Mark, and Wage Compromises	178	(4)
Sweden, or Social Democracy Put to the Test	182	(2)
Social Liberalism a la Francaise	184	(1)
The Abandoning of French-Style Planning and the Decline of Colbertism	185	(1)
A More Inegalitarian Wage Relation Marked by the Search for External Flexibility	186	(1)
Monetary Orthodoxy and Financial Deregulation	187	(3)
Insufficient Industrial Competitiveness	190	(1)
Japan: Technological Revolution, Exports, and Foreign Investments	191	(9)
The Return to a Good Macroeconomic Configuration	191	(1)
The Successes of the Export Sector	192	(2)
The Stability of Regulation Procedures and Financial Deregulation	194	(2)
The Major Crisis of the 1990s	196	(1)
United States and Great Britian: Exploring a New Mode of Growth	197	(1)
Germany and Sweden: Social-Democratic Management of the Supply Crisis	198	(1)
France: The Unsuccessful Search for a New Model	199	(1)
Japan: New Challenges Following an Early End to the Crisis of the 1970s	199	(1)
10. The Accumulation Regime of the 2000s, An Open Choice	200	(41)
Transformation of the Wage Relation and Technological Changes	200	(7)
The Search for Greater Labor Flexibility	200	(4)
The Search for a New Organization and Changing Firm Strategy	204	(1)
The Emergence of a New Technical System	205	(1)
Two Diametrically Opposed Scenarios	206	(1)
Weakening or Restructuration of Public Interventions	207	(6)
The Yield and Legitimacy of the Tax Systems Partly Called into Question	207	(3)
The Rise in Public Debt Charges and the Fear of So-Called "Financial Crowding Out"	210	(1)
Restructuring of Public Expenditures and Privatizations: Changing Frontiers Between Private and Public?	211	(2)
Financial Changes and Transformations in Economic Cycles	213	(9)
Changes in the Financial Systems During the 1980s	213	(3)
The 1990-1993 Recessions: New Features	216	(6)
The Evolution of International Regulation	222	(6)
The Impossibility of Fixed Exchanges and the Drawbacks of Floating	222	(4)
International Regulation Through Debt	226	(2)
European Integration and the New Accumulation Regime	228	(7)
Single Market: The Perverse Effects of Increased Competition	228	(2)
The Prospects for Monetary Union and Its Contradictions	230	(3)
Scenarios for European Integration	233	(2)
The Impact of Changes in the Countries of Eastern Europe	235	(6)
The New Integration of the Eastern Countries into the World Economy	236	(1)
The Impact of German Reunification	237	(1)
The Impact of Changes in the Other East European Countries	238	(3)
Conclusion	241	(4)
References	245	(8)
About the Authors	253	(2)
Index	255