Inter-Sectoral and Government Wage Coordination in Segmented Neo-Corporatism: Origins and Performance in Argentina and Uruguay (2005-2015).

Abstract

Neo-corporatism is in retreat in most of the advanced world, and was not part of the policy recipe in the majority of countries that staged the left-turn in Latin America in the 2000s. However, this article shows that Argentina and Uruguay after 2005 constitute cases of Segmented Neo-Corporatism, defined as a new form of centralized and tripartite wage policy oriented by the State in the region, which covers a substantial portion (registered workers), though not all, wage earners. The article traces de origins of this form of interest politics in both countries, and tests empirically the degree of wage coordination in the two dimensions of a) inter-sectoral dispersion between unions that operate in tradable, and non-tradable activities, and in the public sector and b) government capacity to influence effectively wage parameters. The study argues that a non-accommodating monetary policy and higher bargaining centralization largely explain the capacity of the Uruguayan neocorporatism to govern wage setting compared to its Argentine counterpart.