Price controls against 'profit-led inflation': Lessons from the incomes policy debate.

Why do some economists support price controls in the face of inflation during peacetime? Our thesis is that, in the history of economic thought, understanding the role of profits in inflationary dynamics is the crucial variable. To demonstrate this, we investigate the extensive literature on incomes...

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Publicado en:Cambridge Journal of Economics Vol. 50; no. 2; pp. 377 - 408
Autor principal: Clerc, Basile
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Oxford University Press / USA Mar2026
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Mar2026
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        atl: Price controls against 'profit-led inflation': Lessons from the incomes policy debate.
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        au: Clerc, Basile
      su:
        Price inflation
        Philosophy of economics
        Macroeconomics
        Price regulation
        Incomes policy (Economics)
      sug:
        subj:
          Price inflation
          Philosophy of economics
          Macroeconomics
          Regulation, Licensing, and Inspection of Miscellaneous Commercial Sectors
          Price regulation
          Incomes policy (Economics)
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        copyrightHolder:Cambridge Political Economy Society
        copyrightYear:2026
        incomes policy
        inflation
        inLanguage:en
        price controls
        publisher:Oxford University Press
        sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cje/beag004
        unemployment
        wage controls
        copyrightHolder:Cambridge Political Economy Society
        copyrightYear:2026
        incomes policy
        inflation
        inLanguage:en
        price controls
        publisher:Oxford University Press
        sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cje/beag004
        unemployment
        wage controls
      ab: Why do some economists support price controls in the face of inflation during peacetime? Our thesis is that, in the history of economic thought, understanding the role of profits in inflationary dynamics is the crucial variable. To demonstrate this, we investigate the extensive literature on incomes policy, insofar as much of the thinking on macroeconomic price control in peacetime is part of this literature. This corpus is crossed by a major schism: some advocate price and wage controls while others limit control to wages alone. We show that the defence of price controls is always based on the thesis that profits play an autonomous role in inflationary dynamics. Conversely, the advocates of an incomes policy reduced to wage controls see margins as mere transmission belts for excessive wage increases into prices. Price controls are thus rejected ex ante , even before any criticism of the consequences of their application.
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