What are the effects of firm- and sector-level trade unions on unemployment and aggregate output if individuals have rent-sharing motives? To answer this question, we extend a Melitz-type model to unionized labor markets. Because individual rent-sharing motives are only taken into account and...

Unions are often stigmatized as being a source of inefficiency due to higher collective bargaining outcomes. This is in stark contrast with the descriptive evidence presented in this paper. Larger firms choose to export and are also more likely to adopt collective bargaining. We rationalize...

Utilizing provincial-level data from the period of 1994-2008, this paper studies the relationship between union density and wages, employment, productivity, and economic output in China. The findings indicate that union density does not affect average wage levels, but is positively associated...

The Israeli Male and Female Workers Equal Pay Law of 1996 declares that men and women are entitled to equal pay for the same work. Nevertheless, most sectoral collective agreements in Israel afford only men with the right to a "family supplement". The current article seeks to understand the...

This paper models the interactions of a labor union and a monopoly firm under an import quota in a small open economy. The distorted equilibrium is depicted in a diagram, in which wages and employment in both sectors, and the monopoly rent can be identified. The imposition of an import quota in...

The paper estimates how wages respond to changes in regional unemployment using detailed Swedish micro data. The study is set in an economy with close to complete union coverage where real wages have grown continuously in all parts of the wage distribution for the past 15 years, and where the...

I examine evidence on private sector union wage gaps in the U.S. The consensus opinion among labor economists of an average union premium of roughly 15 percent is called into question. Two forms of measurement error create a downward bias in standard wage gap estimates. Match bias results from...