IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/labeco/v2y1995i3p249-274.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do unions reduce discrimination? A model of Nash bargaining between a union and an employer with discriminatory tastes

Author

Listed:
  • Myles, Gareth D.
  • Naylor, Robin A.

Abstract

Whilst there is a significant empirical literature on the effects of unions on pay discrimination, there is little by way of a rigorous theoretical treatment of this important topic. This is particularly surprising given the many recent developments in the economic theory of the trade union. This paper offers a theoretical framework which integrates models of union-firm bargaining with the analysis of employer discrimination. Within the class of right-to-manage models of union-firm bargaining, we consider the bargain between a rent-maximising union and a utility-maximising employer with discriminatory tastes. Our main conclusion is that only weak conditions have to be satisfied for the presence of a union with bargaining power over the wage rates paid by a discriminating firm to reduce the wage gap between the different worker groups and, in the right-to-manage model, for the wage gap to fall monotonically as union bargaining power increases. Amongst other results, we also find that as employer discrimination increases, the monopoly union bargains a higher wage for the group against which the firm is discriminating.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Myles, Gareth D. & Naylor, Robin A., 1995. "Do unions reduce discrimination? A model of Nash bargaining between a union and an employer with discriminatory tastes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 249-274, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:2:y:1995:i:3:p:249-274
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0927-5371(95)80031-R
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Horn, Henrik & Wolinsky, Asher, 1988. "Worker Substitutability and Patterns of Unionisation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 98(391), pages 484-497, June.
    2. Main, Brian G M & Reilly, Barry, 1992. "Women and the Union Wage Gap," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 102(410), pages 49-66, January.
    3. repec:bla:scandj:v:87:y:1985:i:2:p:160-93 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. John Goddard & Peter J. Sloane, 2005. "Economics of sport," Chapters, in: Simon W. Bowmaker (ed.), Economics Uncut, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Brian Chiplin & Peter J. Sloane, 1976. "Sex Discrimination in the Labour Market," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-02784-2, December.
    6. Robin Naylor, 1989. "Strikes, Free Riders, and Social Customs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(4), pages 771-785.
    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. Azam, Jean-Paul & Rospabe, Sandrine, 2007. "Trade unions vs. statistical discrimination: Theory and application to post-apartheid South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 417-444, September.
    2. Julien Picault, 2013. "Unionization and Labour-market Discrimination: A Closer Look at Non-unionized Workers," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 27(3), pages 272-287, September.
    3. Bulkley, George & Myles, Gareth D., 2001. "Individually rational union membership," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 117-137, March.
    4. Minas Vlassis & Nick Drydakis, 2012. "Wage discrimination and antidiscrimination policy in unionized industries," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 105(1), pages 45-62, January.

    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. Corneo, Giacomo, 1995. "Social custom, management opposition, and trade union membership," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 275-292, February.
    2. Checchi, Daniele & Visser, Jelle & van de Werfhorst, Herman G., 2007. "Inequality and Union Membership: The Impact of Relative Earnings Position and Inequality Attitudes," IZA Discussion Papers 2691, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Thomas Grandner, 2006. "A Note on Franchising and Wage Bargaining," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 87(3), pages 281-293, April.
    4. Bryson, Alex, 2001. "Union effects on managerial and employee perceptions of employee relations in Britain," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 4957, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Bofinger, Peter & Franz, Wolfgang & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Weder di Mauro, Beatrice & Wiegard, Wolfgang, 2010. "Chancen für einen stabilen Aufschwung. Jahresgutachten 2010/11 [Chances for a stable upturn. Annual Report 2010/11]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 201011.
    6. P.W. Miller & S. Rummery, 1989. "Gender Wage Discrimination in Australia: A reassessment," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 89-21, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    7. Lommerud, Kjell Erik & Meland, Frode & Straume, Odd Rune, 2009. "Can deunionization lead to international outsourcing?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 109-119, February.
    8. Koskela, Erkki & Stenbacka, Rune, 2010. "Equilibrium unemployment with outsourcing and wage solidarity under labour market imperfections," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 376-392, April.
    9. Kuhn, Peter & Gu, Wulong, 1998. "Centralization and strikes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 243-265, September.
    10. Luciano Fanti, 2017. "An Observable Delay Game with Unionised Managerial Firms," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 64(1), pages 50-69, February.
    11. Fort, Rodney & Maxcy, Joel & Diehl, Mark, 2016. "Uncertainty by regulation: Rottenberg׳s invariance principle," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 454-467.
    12. Dorian Owen, 2014. "Measurement of competitive balance and uncertainty of outcome," Chapters, in: John Goddard & Peter Sloane (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Professional Football, chapter 3, pages 41-59, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Moti Michaeli & Daniel Spiro, "undated". "The dynamics of revolutions," Working Papers WP2017/8, University of Haifa, Department of Economics.
    14. Stefan Szymanski, 2021. "On the Incidence of an Ad Valorem Tax: The Adoption of VAT in the UK and Cost Pass Through by English Football Clubs," De Economist, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 37-61, February.
    15. repec:lan:wpaper:3964 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Bughin, Jacques & Vannini, Stefano, 1995. "Strategic direct investment under unionized oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 127-145, March.
    17. Anja Heinze & Elke Wolf, 2010. "The intra-firm gender wage gap: a new view on wage differentials based on linked employer–employee data," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(3), pages 851-879, June.
    18. Filippo Vergara Caffarelli, 2007. "Merge and Compete: Strategic Incentives for Vertical Integration," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 97(5), pages 203-244, September.
    19. Blanchflower, David G. & Bryson, Alex & Forth, John, 2006. "Workplace Industrial Relations in Britain, 1980-2004," IZA Discussion Papers 2518, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Pichler, Eva, 1991. "Union Wage Bargaining and Status," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 8, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    21. Leahy, Dermot & Montagna, Catia, 2012. "Strategic investment and international outsourcing in unionised oligopoly," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 260-269.

    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:labeco:v:2:y:1995:i:3:p:249-274. 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.

    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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/labeco .

    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.