This paper presents an alternative implementation of firm-level collective wage bargaining, where bargaining proceeds as a finite sequence of sessions between a firm and a union of variable size. We investigate the impact of such a 'gradual' union on the wage-employment contract in an economy...

The literature on the relationship between the unemployment rate and wage bargaining fails to separate the offsetting effects of a reduction in competition associated with centralized bargaining and the increased awareness of unemployment externalities. This paper uses OECD data to distinguish...

The collapse of the economy at the end of 2008 is one of the most important issues of our time and has resulted in the passage of historic bailout and stimulus legislation. Newly elected President Obama has recognized that his political future depends upon the economy rebounding. This Essay...

This study analyzes the long-term effect of labor market institutions, such as minimum wage and union density, on inequality, investment, growth, and consumption, by using data of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Co- operation and Development since the 1970s. Labor market...

This paper exploits a unique cross-country, firm-level survey to study the responses of European firms to the sharp demand and credit contraction triggered by the global Great Recession of 2009. The analysis reveals that cost reduction — particularly labour cost reduction through the...

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...

Conventional wisdom suggests that labor unions raise worker wages while the newer empirical literature finds only negligible earnings effects. I reconcile this apparent contradiction by arguing that collective bargaining targets fringe benefits. Using U.S. firm-level data from the BEA...

Die Allgemeinverbindlicherklärung von Tarifverträgen (AVE) kann ein Mittel darstellen, die Tarifbindung zu stabilisieren. Inzwischen ist viel über die AVE-Praxis einzelner Länder bekannt, wenig jedoch über die AVE auf Branchenebene. Der Beitrag untersucht die Verteilung der AVE zwischen...

This article examines the impact of the pandemic on ride-hailing drivers and their mitigation strategies during lockdown in Africa. Ride-hailing has emerged as one of the latest paid-work opportunities for the continent’s many unemployed. Yet, ride-hailing companies like Uber and Bolt...

Do public sector wages exert presures on private sector wages, or has private sector a leadership role in wage setting? This paper tries to isolate the pure signalling effect that one sector might exert on the other by controlling for other determinants os wages (prices, productivity,...