This paper presents a new approach to the theory of the firm by identifying factor complementarities as central to the determination of the firm's boundaries. The factor complementarities may take a variety of forms: technological and informational complementarities, as well as economies of...

The paper examines the implications of an important aspect of the ongoing reorganization of work - the move from occupational specialization toward multi-tasking - for centralized wage bargaining. The analysis shows how, on account of this reorganization, centralized bargaining becomes...

The paper examines the determinants of the division of labor within firms. It provides an explanation of the pervasive observed changes in work organization away from the traditional functional departments and toward multi-tasking and job rotation. Whereas the existing literature on the division...

The paper analyzes the contemporary organizational restructuring of production and work and derives some salient implications for the labor market. The analysis focuses on the switch from occupational specialization at “Tayloristic” organizations to multi-tasking at “holistic”...

This paper compares two theories of involuntary unemployment: the efficiency-wage theory and the insider-outsider theory. We indicate that one of the central problems in providing microfoundations for the existence of involuntary unemployment is to explain why there is no underbidding, and we...

The paper constructs a simple macroeconomic model that contains a labor market in which insiders have power in wage negotiations. Wage and employment decisions are assumed to be made before business conditions are known; thus these decisions depend on both the hiring costs and expected dismissal...

The paper examines the implications of an important aspect of the ongoing reorganization of work – the move from occupational specialization towards multi-tasking – for centralized wage bargaining. The analysis shows how, on account of this reorganization, centralized bargaining becomes...