Income Distribution, Macroeconomic Analysis and Barriers to full Employment

In this paper, we are concerned with three sets of arguments concerning the relationship between macroeconomics and the distribution of income. In the first main section we argue that in so far as the NAIRU (non accelerating inflation rate of unemployment) is seen as a barrier to the achievement of full employment, it should be viewed as one arising from conflicts over the distribution of income. In the second main section, we discuss the question of the relationship between the distribution of income and the level of aggregate demand. Specifically, we briefly examine how changes in the distribution of income have impacted on the levels of economic activity and of unemployment over the past 15 years or so. In the third section we offer some remarks on monetary policy and the distribution of income.