IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cai/recosp/reco_605_1155.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Interaction between Underground Employment and Unions in Selected Italian Industries

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno Chiarini
  • Elisabetta Marzano

Abstract

In this paper we investigate empirically the nature of the relation between underground employment and unions in Italy, focusing on certain productive sectors. The motivation for this analysis is the hypothesis of the existence of two different opposite channels through which unions affect underground employment: a macro-effect, generating shadow activities via higher wages and market rigidities; a micro-effect, entailing a negative impact of trade union power on underground employment. We consider two different measures of the bargaining power of trade unions, i.e. wages and net density. Econometric analysis of Italian data yields three main results. First, mechanisms of interaction between underground employment and unions change profoundly according to the nature of the industry. Second, the two indexes of the trade unions? bargaining power play a different role vis-à-vis the extent of underground employment. Third, there is a counter-intuitive interaction between wage and underground employment, which may be explained in an insider-outsider framework.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno Chiarini & Elisabetta Marzano, 2009. "Interaction between Underground Employment and Unions in Selected Italian Industries," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 60(5), pages 1155-1180.
    • Handle: RePEc:cai:recosp:reco_605_1155
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cairn.info/load_pdf.php?ID_ARTICLE=RECO_605_1155
    Download Restriction: free
    File URL: http://www.cairn.info/revue-economique-2009-5-page-1155.htm
    Download Restriction: free
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Busato, Francesco & Chiarini, Bruno & Rey, Guido M., 2012. "Equilibrium implications of fiscal policy with tax evasion: A long run perspective," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 197-214.
    2. Kolm, Ann-Sofie & Larsen, Birthe, 2001. "Wages, Unemployment, and the Underground Economy," Working Paper Series 2001:8, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    3. repec:bla:econom:v:54:y:1987:i:215:p:355-65 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Tito Boeri & Pietro Garibaldi, "undated". "Shadow Activity and Unemployment in a Depressed Labor Market," Working Papers 177, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    5. Booth,Alison L., 1994. "The Economics of the Trade Union," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521468398.
    6. Elisabetta Marzano, 2004. "Dual Labour Market Theories And Irregular Jobs: Is There a Dualism Even in The Irregular Sector?," CELPE Discussion Papers 81, CELPE - CEnter for Labor and Political Economics, University of Salerno, Italy.
    7. Loayza, Norman V., 1996. "The economics of the informal sector: a simple model and some empirical evidence from Latin America," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 129-162, December.
    8. Bruno Chiarini & Enrico Marchetti, 2000. "Modelli dinamici del sindacato: estensioni e critiche," Economia politica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 113-148.
    9. Francesco Busato & Bruno Chiarini & Guido M. Rey, 2005. "The Macroeconomic Implications of Fiscal Policy with Tax Evasion," Economics Working Papers 2005-04, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    10. Lawrence, Sophia. & Ishikawa, Junko., 2005. "Trade union membership and collective bargaining coverage : statistical concepts, methods and findings," ILO Working Papers 994858633402676, International Labour Organization.
    11. repec:ilo:ilowps:485863 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Maurizio Bovi, 2007. "Shadow Employment and Labor Productivity Dynamics," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 21(4‐5), pages 735-761, December.
    13. Fugazza, Marco & Jacques, Jean-Francois, 2004. "Labor market institutions, taxation and the underground economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1-2), pages 395-418, January.
    14. Johansen, Soren, 1988. "Statistical analysis of cointegration vectors," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 231-254.
    15. Francesco Busato & Bruno Chiarini, 2004. "Market and underground activities in a two-sector dynamic equilibrium model," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 23(4), pages 831-861, May.
    16. Johansen, Soren, 1995. "Likelihood-Based Inference in Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive Models," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198774501.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vlassis, Minas & Mamakis, Stefanos & Varvataki, Maria, 2019. "Taxes, social insurance contributions, and undeclared labour in unionized oligopoly," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1-1.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francesco Busato & Bruno Chiarini & Pasquale de Angelis & Elisabetta Marzano, 2005. "Capital Subsidies and the Underground Economy," Economics Working Papers 2005-10, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    2. Bruno Chiarini & Elisabetta Marzano & Francesco Busato & Pasquale De Angelis, 2007. "State Aid Policies and Underground Activities," Discussion Papers 4_2007, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.
    3. Francesco Busato & Bruno Chiarini & Pasquale De Angelis & Elisabetta Marzano, 2008. "Firm-oriented policies, tax cheating and perverse outcomes," Discussion Papers 10_2008, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.
    4. Maurizio Bovi & Peter Claeys, 2008. "Treasury V Dodgers. A Tale of Fiscal Consolidation and Tax Evasion," ISAE Working Papers 93 Classification-JEL E62, ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics - (Rome, ITALY).
    5. Lisi, G., 2011. "Entrepreneurship, On-the-job Search and Informal Jobs," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, issue 9, pages 33-46.
    6. Gaetano Lisi & Maurizio Pugno, 2015. "A matching model of endogenous growth and underground firms," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 11(4), pages 347-369, December.
    7. Gaetano Lisi & Maurizio Pugno, 2010. "The Underground Economy in a Matching Model of Endogenous Growth," Working Papers 2010-07, Universita' di Cassino, Dipartimento di Economia e Giurisprudenza.
    8. Joanna Tyrowicz & Stanisław Cichocki, 2011. "Employed unemployed? On shadow employment in transition," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 38(2), pages 259-281, May.
    9. Maxim Bouev, 2005. "State Regulations, Job Search and Wage Bargaining: A Study in the Economics of the Informal Sector," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp764, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    10. Bruno Chiarini & Elisabetta Marzano & Friedrich Schneider, "undated". "Tax rates and Tax evasion: an Empirical Analysis of the Structural Aspects and Long-Run Characteristics in Italy," Working Papers wp2009-1, Department of the Treasury, Ministry of the Economy and of Finance.
    11. Joanna Tyrowicz & Stanisław Cichocki, 2010. "Employed Unemployed? On Shadow Employment During Transition," Working Papers 2010-05, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    12. Busato; Francesco & Bruno Chiarini & Vincenzo di Maro, 2005. "Directional Congestion and Regime Switching in a Long Memory Model for Electricity Prices," Economics Working Papers 2005-19, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    13. Kolml, Ann-Sofie & Larsen, Birthe, 2010. "The Black Economy and Education," Research Papers in Economics 2010:3, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    14. Maxim Bouev, 2002. "Official Regulations and the Shadow Economy: A Labour Market Approach," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 524, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    15. Bruno Chiarini & Elisabetta Marzano, 2006. "Market consumption and hidden consumption. A test for substitutability," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(6), pages 707-716.
    16. Ann-Sofie Kolm & Birthe Larsen, 2019. "Underground activities and labour market performance," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(1), pages 41-70, February.
    17. Paul Castillo B. & Carlos Montoro Ll., 2012. "Inflation Dynamics in the Presence of Informal Labour Markets," Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy), Central Bank of Chile, vol. 15(1), pages 4-31, April.
    18. Giovanna Vallanti & Giuseppina Gianfreda, 2021. "Informality, regulation and productivity: do small firms escape EPL through shadow employment?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1383-1412, October.
    19. Gaetano LISI, 2011. "Optimal taxation and monitoring in an economy with matching frictions and underground activities," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 2, pages 5-11, June.
    20. Lisi, Gaetano, 2010. "Occupazione irregolare e disoccupazione in Italia: un’analisi panel regionale [Underground Employment and Unemployment in Italy: A Panel Analysis]," MPRA Paper 22508, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cai:recosp:reco_605_1155. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jean-Baptiste de Vathaire (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cairn.info/revue-economique.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.