Taxation, Wage Bargaining, and Unemployment

Why were European economies able to pursue the simultaneous commitment to full employment and welfare state expansion during the first decades of the postwar period? This book highlights the critical importance of a political exchange between unions and governments, premised on wage moderation in exchange for the expansion of social services and transfers. The strategies pursued by these actors in these political exchanges are influenced by existing wage bargaining institutions, the character of monetary policy and by the level and composition of social policy transfers.

Isabela Mares is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University