Labour markets and wage growth: the case of Argentina

ADRIANA MARSHALL (GOLDSCHVARTZ)

CAMBRIDGE JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS

Año: 1980 vol. 4 p. 37 - 60

0309-166X

This paper examines the general labour market situation in Argentina, and its influence on the growth rate of money wages, during the 1995-1972 period, along the two, “easy” and “difficult”, stages of inward-oriented import-substitution industrialisation. Following the tradition of classical economics, an attempt is made to reinstate the importance of the conditions in the labour market as a whole in the process of wage determination. This article, based on research results published earlier in the book El Mercado de Trabajo en el Capitalismo Periférico: el caso de Argentina (Santiago de Chile: PISPAL, 1978), is organised as follows.  First, the analytical framework guiding the research is presented. Next, the most relevant features of the Argentine economy are outlined focusing in the 1955-72 period. Third, the labour market situation in this period is characterised. Last, the evolution of both the average wage and the wage structure (in terms of major economic activities as well as manufacturing industries) are examined, discussing the explanatory role of economic and labour market forces, government and employer policies, and trade union actions in the determination of wages and the degree of wage inequality.