IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/indorg/v9y1991i2p261-274.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unions and the capture of economic rents: An investigation using british firm level data

Author

Listed:
  • Machin, S.J.

Abstract

This paper considers the relationship between unions and profitability in a sample of large British firms in 1984 and 1985. The initial finding is that unionised firms have significantly lower profit margins than otherwise comparable non-union firms. Tests of whether the ability of unions to influence profit margins varies with the product and labour market characteristics of the firms in which they are located are then conducted. The ability of unions to capture economic rents is seen to be significantly greater in firms which have a high market share and/or operate in highly unionised industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Machin, S.J., 1991. "Unions and the capture of economic rents: An investigation using british firm level data," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 261-274, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:indorg:v:9:y:1991:i:2:p:261-274
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167-7187(05)80007-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Simon Eisele & Martin R. Schneider, 2020. "What Do Unions Do to Work Design? Computer Use, Union Presence, and Tayloristic Jobs in Britain," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 604-626, October.
    2. Labadi, Moufida & Nekhili, Mehdi, 2012. "Structure de propriété et partage de la valeur ajoutée : application aux entreprises françaises non financières du SBF120," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 12.
    3. Metcalf, David, 1993. "Transformation of British industrial relations? Institutions, conduct and outcomes 1980-1990," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20981, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Paul Gregg & Stephen Machin, 1991. "Changes in Union Status, Increased Competition and Wage Growth in the 1980s," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 603-611, December.
    5. Esperanza Gracia, 1999. "Márgenes y cuotas de mercado. Un análisis con un micropanel," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 23(3), pages 393-428, September.
    6. Shohei Yoshida, 2018. "Bargaining power and firm profits in asymmetric duopoly: an inverted-U relationship," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 139-158, June.
    7. Stephen Machin, 1995. "Plant Closures and Unionization in British Establishments," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 55-68, March.
    8. Bank, Steven & Cheffins, Brian & Goergen, Marc, 2009. "Dividends and politics," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 208-224, June.
    9. Willner, Johan, 1999. "Policy objectives and performance in a mixed market with bargaining," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 137-145, January.
    10. David Metcalf, 1993. "Industrial Relations and Economic Performance," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 31(2), pages 255-283, June.
    11. Laroche, Patrice, 2020. "Unions, Collective Bargaining and Firm Performance," GLO Discussion Paper Series 728, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    12. James McDonald & Harry Bloch, 1999. "The Spillover Effects of Industrial Action on Firm Profitability," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 15(2), pages 183-200, September.
    13. David Metcalf, 1993. "Transformation of British Industrial Relations? Institutions, Conduct and Outcomes 1980-1990," CEP Discussion Papers dp0151, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    14. Hristos Doucouliagos & Patrice Laroche, 2009. "Unions and Profits: A meta-regression Analysis," Post-Print hal-00648569, HAL.

    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:eee:indorg:v:9:y:1991:i:2:p:261-274. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505551 .

    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.