The Great Trough in Unemployment: a Long-term View of Unemployment,Inflation,Strikes,and the Profit/Wage Ratio

Abstract

The third quarter of the twentieth century with full employment in most Western countries is a historically unique period, forming The Great Trough in unemployment. This article analyses the beginning, continuation, and demise of The Great Trough, contrasting a supply-and-demand framework derived from economic theory with a power-sensitive approach focusing on long-term positive-sum conflicts involving major interest and reflected in unemployment, inflation, industrial disputes, and the functional distribution of national income. Comparative empirical data from eighteen countries are used in analyses of hypotheses implied by the different theoretical perspectives.