Social Partnership and Macroeconomic Performance

Development and level of important macroeconomic indicators vary between countries and over time. We aim to find out the influence of observable differences between the wage bargaining systems on these differences. The study uses data for Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and the UK for the period 1990-2012. Macroeconomic performance is measured by real GDP growth, unemployment, employment, income distribution and wages. As the theoretical and empirical literature shows coordinated, social partnership-based systems tend to lead to a better macroeconomic performance. A descriptive analysis on the basis of current data confirms this conclusion. However, the development of wages and the low-wage employment diverge significantly between countries with social partnership-organised wage negotiations.