The labour share, power and financialisation

Abstract

One of the features of developed economies over the past three decades has been the decline in the labour share of national income (Ellis and Smith 2007, Cahill 2014, Autor, Dorn, Katz, Patterson, and Reenen 2017). While it is not universal, it is evident in most countries, especially the Anglophone ones. In Australia and several other countries it is part of a trifecta of contemporary, related trends. The other two are recent low nominal and real growth in wages (Australian Bureau of Statistics 6345.0, Lysy 2015) and increasing inequality in earnings, income and wealth (Atkinson and Leigh 2007, 2010, Alvaredo et al. 2013).