La política de rentas en España como instrumento de "pre-distribución"

  1. Carlos Ochando Claramunt 1
  2. Juan Francisco Albert Moreno 1
  1. 1 Universitat de València
    info

    Universitat de València

    Valencia, España

    ROR https://ror.org/043nxc105

Journal:
Revista del Ministerio de Trabajo y Economía Social

ISSN: 2660-4647

Year of publication: 2020

Issue Title: Economía y Sociología

Issue: 146

Pages: 113-136

Type: Article

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Abstract

From a theoretical point of view, salary and income policy can pursue two objectives: 1) inflation control and 2) income distribution. In political praxis, the income policy has had as a priority objective the control of inflation. However, recently, there has been a literature linked to the need to rethink social policies emphasizing social investment and the «predistribution» of income. The logic behind these proposals is that it is more effective to act «ex ante» in the distribution than «ex post». In this context, the objective of the work is to merge these two types of literature (on the one hand, the income policy and on the other, the need to establish «pre-distribution» instruments). Our main objective is summarized in proposing a income policy that contributes and facilitates the application of a «pre-distributive» strategy. What salary norm should we apply in Spain to improve the functional distribution of income? This approach is relatively original since, as we have indicated above, normally income policy has been used, in practice, as an anti-inflationary instrument and not as an economic policy instrument that corrects and reduces income inequalities. To achieve this objective, a first empirical estimate is made for the Spanish case of a wage rule that gradually improves income distribution and answers the following question: how much would have to have increased wages to correct the inequality that in recent years have caused the restrictive income policies that have been applied in our country? The work is structured in four blocks: 1) the review of the theoretical arguments raised by different experts around what is understood as an «optimal salary standard»; 2) the reconstruction of the theoretical debate around a «redistributive salary norm»; 3) the description of the evolution of wages and the functional distribution of income and 4) obtaining the results of an estimate of a redistributive income policy for Spain. The simulations carried out of salary growth are based on the verification of the continuous reduction of the wage weight over GDP in recent years in the Spanish economy, a much more pronounced reduction if the rate of salaried workers remains constant. Studying the functional distribution of income while maintaining the constant salary rate is important given that notable changes in the rate of salaried workers can lead to an increase / decrease in the wage share of GDP without really affecting the real distribution between wages and benefits. The disaggregated results also show a continuous reduction of unit labor costs during the entire period considered with the only exception of the years 2007, 2008 and 2009, where there was an increase in wages above productivity. The analysis of the data also suggests that the loss of participation of wage earners in national income has fundamentally been moved to replace the depreciation of capital through the fixed capital cost item and, not so much, to the net business benefits. Likewise, it is also observed that in the period between 1999 and 2006 there is an upward trend in the profitability of capital that is not reflected in the net operating surplus over GDP explained by the increase in the productivity of capital that also occurs in that period. However, from 2006 to 2010, the data recorded a sharp drop in the return on capital of 1 percentage point, which is reflected in this ratio given that the productivity of capital shows few variations. Finally, the objective in this paper is to estimate a wage rule that favors a more equitable redistribution of income in Spain to levels compatible with previous periods. This implies increasing the share of wages in income for some time, which requires that nominal wages grow above productivity and the medium-term inflation rate considering a constant rate of salaried workers. According to our estimates, if we want to reach the wage share in income that the Spanish economy enjoyed in 1999 (47.01%), nominal wages should grow above productivity and inflation by 1.42% per year over a 5-year horizon, 0.70% per annum over the next 10 years or 0.43% per annum if we have a time horizon of 15 years. If the objective is to reach the wage share that the Spanish economy had in 2008 (year of the beginning of the economic crisis), wages must grow above productivity and inflation by 1.07% (in 5 years), 0.53% (in 10 years) and 0.32% (in 15 years). Similarly, although the reduction of income wages is a global phenomenon that is affecting all countries, especially those called developed, we have shown that there are important differences, even in the countries of the European Union. In this sense, we have carried out some simulations of salary growth if our objective is to match the participation of the salaries of some of the most advanced economies in the Union. Thus, if the objective of the Spanish economy is to reach the wage share in income currently maintained by Germany (50.08%), nominal wages should grow above productivity and inflation by 1.31% per year in a 5-year horizon, 0.65% per annum over the next 10 years or 0.43% per annum if we give ourselves a 15-year time horizon. If the objective is to reach the one that France has in 2016 (latest available data), wages must grow above productivity and inflation by 1.78% (in 5 years), 0.89% (in 10 years ) and 0.59% (in 15 years).

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