What drives the four decades-long decline in labour’s share of income?

Alexander Guschanski and Ozlem Onaran (2018) of the University of Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre provide evidence that changes in bargaining power, in particular the fall in union density and welfare state retrenchment, lie at the core of rising income inequality between labour and capital. The research challenges the established consensus that inequality is an unavoidable outcome of technological change or globalisation, and shows the importance of labour market institutions and social protection policies. The results of their recent project, funded by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, will be presented at the Royal Economics Society Annual Conference