Salarios, demanda agregada y desempeño económico en Colombia: un debate no resuelto [Wages, aggregate demand and economic performance in Colombia: an unsolved debate]

According to neoclassical economic theory, there is a negative relationship between real wages, and the level of output and employment. Therefore, neoclassical theory tends to favor policy measures that seek to diminish real wages and deregulate the labor market, explaining that poor economic performance and high unemployment is the result of sticky real wages. However, there are theories that hold an opposite point of view, which shows the issue is far from settled. One of them is explained briefly in this paper using a simple kaleckian model. Using de Bhaduri y Marglin (1990) macro-model, in which salaries may be related both negatively or positively to the level of output, empirical estimations are made to find what´s the nature of the relation between this two variables in Colombia. It is found that there is a positive relationship between the internal sector of the economy and the level of real wages. However, exports are negatively affected by salaries. Results seem to show that the total effect of real wages on output is negative.