Economic growth is an important objective of economic policymaking. Its benefits, however, do not proportionately reach low-income deciles of population that depend on labor income. Using time series data for the 1964-2016 period, this paper investigates wage-ledness of supply side of the Iranian economy. Empirical findings indicate that per capita growth of labor force compensation has a significant positive effect on economic growth. In addition, causality tests confirm that if production becomes more labor-intensive (increase in labor share), then the benefits of economic growth directly go to the pocket of lower-income deciles and the Gini coefficient declines. Therefore, wage-led sustainable growth strategy is a desirable strategy for the dual purpose of increasing growth and poverty alleviation. For this purpose, a structure of production that relies on relative labor abundance and labor-intensive sectors with comparative advantage will help foreign sector of the economy become a wage-led sector, inducing a cycle of wage-led demand and wage-led supply in the economy.
Roghaye H, Hajamini M, Yavari K. The Relationship among Factor Intensities, Wage-led Economic Growth and Income Inequality in the Iranian economy. qjfep 2021; 8 (32) :73-101 URL: http://qjfep.ir/article-1-1183-en.html