SOME THIRTY-FIVE years after the major growth in unions in the United States, the literature on inflation reveals no consensus over the role of collective bargaining in wage inflation. The contrast between the ambivalence of the professional literature toward union influence and the concern of policy officials with the development of negotiated wages seems particularly acute during the biennial and triennial renegotiations of labor contracts in important industries. Most nonprofessional observers of these “wage rounds” would be surprised to learnt hat they apparently lead no life of their own in many wage-adjustment models.
