Many countries suffer from persistently high unemployment rates. The scope for labour market reforms is often limited to measures that hurt neither shareholders nor workers. This paper develops a policy proposal, which allows the government to reduce wage costs without changing the income...

This paper sets up a general oligopolistic equilibrium model with unionized labor markets. By accounting for productivity differences, the model features pro t and wage differentials across industries. We use this setting to study the impact of trade liberalization on employment, welfare, and...

The paper analyses the links between a binding minimum wage and union bargaining. A dual labour market model is developed where the first sector outcome is characterised by bargaining between unions and firms, while in the second sector firms have to pay a statutory minimum wage. It is shown...

In diesem Beitrag werden Ausmaß und Konsequenzen von nominalen und tariflichen Lohnrigiditäten mikroökonomisch und mikroökonometrisch untersucht. Die Analyse verdeutlicht, dass in Deutschland Lohnrigiditäten keineswegs selten sind. Diese haben eine Lohnaufschwemmung mit beachtlichen...

This paper analyses the effects of a social assistance reform in Germany. In contrast to studies which are based on microsimulation methods we use a computable general equilibrium model which incorporates a discrete choice model of labour supply to simulate a variety of reform scenarios. The...

Thema dieses Beitrags ist zum einen eine kritische Würdigung des Flächentarifvertrages (FTV) im Hinblick auf seine Regelungsdichte und zum anderen die theoretische Analyse eines Elements des Flexibilisierungspotentials des FTV, nämlich der Öffnungsklausel, unter Berücksichtigung der...

This study provides empirical evidence for the economic rationality of wage rigidities. Theoretically wage rigidities can result from contracts, implicit contracts, from efficiency wages and from insider-outsider behaviour. Based on a survey of 801 firms strong support has been found for...

The employment effects of an ecological tax reform depend decisively on the presence of a profit tax and on the extent to which profits are taxed. This is shown in a model where firms have monopoly power on product markets and bargain over wages with unions on the labour market. In the setting,...

We extend the standard quality-ladder model with heterogeneous workers by including efficiency wages and unions. We find that higher union bargaining power leads to a negative relationship between growth and unemployment. An increase in the supply of human capital, however, on the one hand...

Does trade affect the equilibrium rate of unemployment? To theoretically examine this question, we incorporate firm-union bargaining considerations into a model with a booming external sector and a stagnating manufacturing sector. In the model, a sustained improvement in the terms of trade...