IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/atlecj/v38y2010i2p145-155.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Trade Unions Deteriorate International Competitiveness? Reconciliation of the Discrepancy Between Theory and Practice

Author

Listed:
  • Chi-Hsin Wu
  • Chia-Ying Liu

Abstract

Brander and Spencer (Journal of International Economics 24:217–234, 1988 ) and Mezzetti and Dinopoulos (Journal of International Economics 31:79–100, 1991 ) provide different theoretical viewpoints on the following issue: Do trade unions deteriorate international competitiveness? Some discrepancies have been found to exist between their arguments and empirical findings. This paper attempts to provide plausible explanations and solutions to reconcile these discrepancies. Copyright International Atlantic Economic Society 2010

Suggested Citation

  • Chi-Hsin Wu & Chia-Ying Liu, 2010. "Do Trade Unions Deteriorate International Competitiveness? Reconciliation of the Discrepancy Between Theory and Practice," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 38(2), pages 145-155, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:atlecj:v:38:y:2010:i:2:p:145-155
    DOI: 10.1007/s11293-010-9222-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11293-010-9222-6
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11293-010-9222-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brander, James A. & Spencer, Barbara J., 1988. "Unionized oligopoly and international trade policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3-4), pages 217-234, May.
    2. Olivier Blanchard & Francesco Giavazzi, 2003. "Macroeconomic Effects of Regulation and Deregulation in Goods and Labor Markets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 879-907.
    3. Oswald, A. J., 1995. "Efficient contracts are on the labour demand curve: Theory and facts," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 102-102, March.
    4. Dowrick, Steve, 1985. "Why employees Prefer not to Bargain over Jobs," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 264, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    5. Booth,Alison L., 1994. "The Economics of the Trade Union," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521468398, November.
    6. Mezzetti, Claudio & Dinopoulos, Elias, 1991. "Domestic unionization and import competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-2), pages 79-100, August.
    7. Timothy C.G. Fisher & Robert G. Waschik, 2000. "Union bargaining power, relative wages, and efficiency in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(3), pages 742-765, August.
    8. Jackman, R. & Layard, R. & Nickell, S., 1996. "Combatting unemployment: is flexibility enough?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 47446, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. repec:bla:econom:v:43:y:1976:i:171:p:267-74 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Ellen R. Rissman, 1988. "Imports, trade policy, and union wage dynamics," Staff Memoranda 88-11, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    11. Haskel, Jonathan & Martin, Christopher, 1992. "Margins, concentration, unions and the business cycle : Theory and evidence for Britain," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 611-632, December.
    12. Bulkley, George & Myles, Gareth D., 1997. "Bargaining over effort," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 375-384, May.
    13. Ellen R. Rissman, 1989. "Trade policy and union wage dynamics," Working Paper Series, Macroeconomic Issues 89-19, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    14. Ashenfelter, Orley & Johnson, George E, 1969. "Bargaining Theory, Trade Unions, and Industrial Strike Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(1), pages 35-49, March.
    15. Gene M. Grossman, 1984. "International Competition and the Unionized Sector," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 17(3), pages 541-556, August.
    16. Manning, Alan, 1993. "Wage Bargaining and the Phillips Curve: The Identification and Specification of Aggregate Wage Equations," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(416), pages 98-118, January.
    17. Rees, Albert, 1989. "The Economics of Trade Unions," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226707105, April.
    18. repec:bla:ecorec:v:65:y:1989:i:190:p:234-39 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Andreas Haufler & Ferdinand Mittermaier, 2011. "Unionisation Triggers Tax Incentives to Attract Foreign Direct Investment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(553), pages 793-818, June.
    2. Laixun Zhao, 2006. "International Labor Standards and Southern Competition," Discussion Paper Series 193, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    3. Gaston, Noel & Trefler, Daniel, 1995. "Union wage sensitivity to trade and protection: Theory and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1-2), pages 1-25, August.
    4. Juan Bárcena-Ruiz & F. Casado-Izaga, 2012. "Location of public and private firms under endogenous timing of choices," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 105(2), pages 129-143, March.
    5. Francois, Joseph & Nelson, Douglas & Grier, Kevin Blaine, 2004. "Globalization, Roundaboutness and Relative Wages," CEPR Discussion Papers 4406, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. S. Dobbelaere, 2003. "Joint Estimation of Price-Cost Margins and Union Bargaining Power for Belgian Manufacturing," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 03/171, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    7. M. Magnani, 2009. "Labor share dynamics: a survey of the theory," Economics Department Working Papers 2009-EP07, Department of Economics, Parma University (Italy).
    8. Fanti, Luciano & Gori, Luca, 2013. "Efficient bargaining versus right to manage: A stability analysis in a Cournot duopoly with trade unions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 205-211.
    9. Daniel Cardona & Fernando Sánchez-Losada, 2004. "The Unemployment Benefit System: a Redistributive or an Insurance Institution?," DEA Working Papers 8, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Departament d'Economía Aplicada.
    10. Luca Gori & Luciano Fanti, 2009. "Right-to-manage unions endogenous growth and welfare," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(2), pages 903-917.
    11. Andrews, Martyn & Harrison, Alan, 1998. "Testing for Efficient Contracts in Unionized Labour Markets," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 171-200, July.
    12. Ana Mauleon & Huasheng Song & Vincent Vannetelbosch, 2010. "Networks of Free Trade Agreements among Heterogeneous Countries," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 12(3), pages 471-500, June.
    13. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2017. "Unionization Regimes, Capacity Choice by Firms and Welfare Outcomes," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 85(6), pages 661-681, December.
    14. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:1039-1089 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Persyn, Damiaan, 2013. "Union wage demands with footloose firms and agglomeration forces," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 142-150.
    16. Barcena-Ruiz, Juan Carlos, 2003. "Politically preferred wage bargaining structures," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 341-353, June.
    17. Bughin, Jacques & Vannini, Stefano, 1995. "Strategic direct investment under unionized oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 127-145, March.
    18. Boeri, Tito & Burda, Michael C., 2004. "Preferences for Rigid versus Individualized Wage Setting in Search Economies with Frictions," IZA Discussion Papers 1133, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Sabien Dobbelaere & Jacques Mairesse, 2013. "Panel data estimates of the production function and product and labor market imperfections," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 1-46, January.
    20. Bastos, Paulo & Bottan, Nicolas, 2023. "Resource rents, coercion, and local development: Evidence from post-apartheid South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    21. Doménech, Rafael & Garcí­a, José Ramón, 2008. "Unemployment, taxation and public expenditure in OECD economies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 202-217, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unionization; Bargaining power; International trade; F12; J50;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General

    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:kap:atlecj:v:38:y:2010:i:2:p:145-155. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.