A striking feature of the past few decades has been the development of wage-determination models that assume that labour markets are imperfectly competitive. This paper discusses two such models (trade unions and oligopsony), although there are many more. It also asks if imperfectly competitive...

The Mortensen and Pissarides (1994) matching model with all wages negotiated each period is shown inconsistent with macroeconomic wage dynamics in the US. This applies even when heterogeneous match productivities, time to build vacancies and credible bargaining are incorporated. Wage rigidity...

This paper uses a rich employer-employee matched data set to investigate the existence and the extent of nonprofit and part-time wage and compensation differentials in child care. The empirical strategy adjusts for workers' self-selection into the for-profit or nonprofit sectors, into full-time...

What are the prospects for improving the lot of US workers in the 21st century? This introduction to the topic examines the most important US labor market trends of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, considers their causes and likely future trends; and then explores policies that might...

This paper combines two of the most central features of modern labor markets - immigrants and unions - to examine the role of worker power in shaping immigrant sorting across firms, and how that subsequently influences the performance of firms and the careers of incumbent workers. First, unions...

It is sometimes claimed that the coverage of collective bargaining in Germany is considerably understated because of orientation, a process whereby uncovered firms profess to shadow the wages set under sectoral bargaining. Yet importantly, at a time when collective bargaining proper has been in...

This paper studies the effects of nursing home unionization on numerous labor, establishment, and consumer outcomes using a regression discontinuity design. We find negative effects of unionization on staffing levels and no decline in care quality, suggesting positive labor productivity effects....

In many kinds of bilateral negotiations the resolution of the issues at stake has an impact which extends beyond the remits of the parties directly involved (e.g. labour negotiations in sectors of public interest, where a strike would impact on the public at large). Once this is recognised,...