Long range accumulation and regulation: employment, wage income, prices and profit,
by Maurice Basle, Philippe Bautier, Jacques Mazier et Jean- François Vidal.
Long range transformations of accumulation systems and regulation procedures are studied in the context of French growth. Until the end of the 1930s, accumulation remained principally extensive and the productivity gains of the 1920s were primarily related to catch-up following World War I. Regulation of wages and prices remained broadly competitive and heavily dependent on fluctuations in economic activity. Only after the Second World War did the intensive accumulation system really flourish in France, entailing an unprecedented acceleration of productivity. The transition to more monopolistic regulation also took clear shape while labor relations underwent a sea change with wages becoming more independent of the ups and downs of economic activity, escalation being generalized, and more weight being assigned to indirect wages. In regard to prices and profit, a margin behavior characteristic of monopolist regulation prevailed.
These changes are compatible with a degree stability of the lang range wage/profit allocation which appears to be necessary for the over-all reproduction of the system.