In this paper, we investigate whether globalization has affected workers' bargaining power in the Belgian manufacturing industry over the period 1987-1995 using a sample of more than 20,000 firms. We find little evidence of international trade and inward foreign direct investment having an...

Using a two-country duopoly model with homogeneous goods, firms' decisions with respect to international activities (trade vs. foreign direct investment - FDI) in the presence of company-wide unions are analyzed. If firms export, they pay trade costs per unit of the goods exported. If firms...

This paper develops a two-country, general equilibrium model of oligopoly in which the degree of horizontal product differentiation is endogenously determined by firms' strategic investments in product innovation. Consumers seek variety and product innovation is more skill intensive than...

We introduce search unemployment - la Pissarides into Melitz' (2003) model of trade with heterogeneous firms. We allow wages to be individually or collectively bargained and analytically solve for the equilibrium. We find that the selection effect of trade influences labor market outcomes. Trade...

In this paper, we adopt the vertical differentiation duopoly framework to give a full description of firms’ relocation decisions, when the removal either of trade barriers or of restrictions on capital outflows/inflows (‘globalization’) allows them to serve the domestic market through...

We analyze unionized firms’ incentives to outsource intermediate goods production to foreign (low-cost) subcontractors. Such outsourcing leads to increased wages for the remaining in-house production. We find that stronger unions, which imply higher domestic wages, reduce incentives for...

We analyze unionized firms’ incentives to outsource intermediate goods production to foreign (low-cost) subcontractors. Such outsourcing leads to increased wages for the remaining in-house production. We find that stronger unions, which implies higher domestic wages, reduce incentives for...

Aus historischer Sicht spielten Arbeiterbewegungen eine entscheidende Rolle in der Entwicklung sicherer Arbeitsplätze. Unfallschutz am Arbeitsplatz ist für Unternehmen kostspielig, führt aber aufgrund eines Rückgangs der Krankheitstage zu einem Anstieg des Arbeitsangebots. In einer freien...

I examine how globalization affects wages and welfare in a general equilibrium model of international trade with partly oligopolistic markets. Globalization is modeled as reducing trade costs or opening up shielded sectors to trade. There is a national or international common agency that...

This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the quantitative importance of the factors associated with the rise in male wage inequality in Germany over the period 1995-2010. In contrast to most previous contributions, we rely on the German Structure of Earnings Surveys (GSES) which allow...