AN ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTİON RELATIONS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: BEFORE AND AFTER COVID-19

Öz

Production relations, main components of which are labour and capital, has gone through various phases. With the rise of neoliberalism, economic relations have shifted to the global scale under the increasing influence of international trade, transnational production and global division of labour. This has increased the dependency among national economies and created a domino effect in the global markets, the last incidence of which was the unexpected existence of Covid-19 pandemic. This research focuses on 12 member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that have reached the highest levels of export since the 2000s. It comparatively analyses export and industrial production levels, employment, unemployment, inactivity, wages, labour productivity and unit labour costs before and after Covid-19. It indicates that the increase in capital accumulation was owed to labour surplus before the Covid-19 period. Based on this, it argues that the disastrous effects of the pandemic were suffered by both capital and labour in the second quarter of 2020. Export and industrial production levels has started to recover from the third quarter onwards, however, no improvements have been achieved on the labour side. Keeping in mind the question of whether the loss of rights will be permanent, it argues that labour currently shoulders the economic cost of Covid-19 economic crisis.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Capital
• Covid-19
• global economy
• labour
• neoliberalism
• production

ÜRETİM İLİŞKİLERİNİN KÜRESEL EKONOMİ ÖLÇEĞİNDE ANALİZİ: COVİD-19 ÖNCESİ VE SONRASI

Öz

Emek ve sermayenin ana bileşenlerini oluşturduğu üretim ilişkileri farklı tarihsel aşamalardan geçmiştir. Neoliberalizm çatısı altında kesintisiz bir kapitalist birikim hedefinin ön plana çıkmasıyla kapsamı gitgide genişleyen uluslararası ticaret, ulus ötesi üretim ve küresel iş bölümü çerçevesinde ekonomik ilişkiler küresel ölçeğe taşınmıştır. Bunun bir sonucu olarak ulusal ekonomiler birbirine bağımlı hale gelmiş; ekonomik sarsıntıların ülkeler üzerinde yarattığı domino etkisi en son beklenmedik bir biçimde gelişen Covid-19 küresel salgını sürecinde yaşanmıştır. Bu çalışma, neoliberalizmin pekiştiği 2000’li yıllarda en yüksek ihracat rakamlarına ulaşan 12 Ekonomik İşbirliği ve Kalkınma Örgütü (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD]) üyesi ülkeyi örneklem alarak, salgın öncesi ve sonrasının ihracat ve endüstriyel üretim seviyeleri ile istihdam, işsizlik, eylemsizlik, ücret, emek üretkenliği ve birim emek maliyeti verilerini karşılaştırmalı olarak incelemektedir. Analiz sonuçları salgın öncesi dönemde artı-değer bazlı sermaye birikimi artışlarını ve bu artışların emek temelli kaynağını net biçimde göstermiş; Covid-19 sonrası küresel piyasalarda üretim ilişkilerinin değişimi açısından da sağlam bir karşılaştırma zemini sunmuştur. Buna göre salgının özellikle 2020 yılının ikinci çeyreğinde dünya ekonomilerinde yarattığı tahribatın hem emek hem de sermaye tarafından derinden hissedilmiştir. Ancak yılın üçüncü çeyreğinden itibaren ihracat ve endüstriyel üretimde yaşanan toparlanmaya rağmen emeğin konumunda bir değişim gerçekleşmediği görülmüştür. Hak kayıplarının kalıcı olup olmayacağı sorusunu akılda tutarak, Covid-19 krizinin ekonomik maliyetini emeğin üstlenmekte olduğu söylenebilmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• emek
• Kovid-19
• küresel ekonomi
• neoliberalizm
• üretim
• sermaye

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