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Abstract:
A popular explanation for the Eurozone crisis is that differences in wage bargaining institutions led to a major divergence in labour costs between northern and southern member states prior to the crisis. Drawing on a new study, Lucio Baccaro and Tobias Tober find that while this explanation led to wage moderation and labour market reforms being pursued in these countries following the crisis, there is little evidence competitiveness losses were caused by differences in collective bargaining institutions. Rather, differences in nominal wage growth are much better explained by patterns of domestic credit creation. They also find that wage moderation does not stimulate exports in the Eurozone, with one exception: Germany.
