IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_587.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trade Unions and the Burden of the Public Debt

Author

Listed:
  • Erling Steigum

Abstract

This paper looks at intergenerational welfare effects of increased public debt when union power in pay bargaining generates structural unemployment. Debt policy works through capital accumulation as well as the price of a fixed asset that is owned by the old generation. Under a reasonable condition, the debt burden on future generations from postponement of the labor tax is larger than in the case of no union power. Under this condition, increased union power also reduces the consumption of future generations.

Suggested Citation

  • Erling Steigum, 2001. "Trade Unions and the Burden of the Public Debt," CESifo Working Paper Series 587, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_587
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo_wp587.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Nickell, Stephen & Layard, Richard, 1999. "Labor market institutions and economic performance," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 46, pages 3029-3084, Elsevier.
    3. Kehoe, Patrick J., 1987. "Coordination of fiscal policies in a world economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 349-376, May.
    4. Alan J. Auerbach & Jagadeesh Gokhale & Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 1991. "Generational Accounts: A Meaningful Alternative to Deficit Accounting," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 55-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. John Laitner, 2000. "Social Security Reform and National Wealth," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(3), pages 349-371, September.
    6. Ken Binmore & Ariel Rubinstein & Asher Wolinsky, 1986. "The Nash Bargaining Solution in Economic Modelling," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(2), pages 176-188, Summer.
    7. Nickell, Stephen & Kong, Paul, 1992. "An investigation into the power of insiders in wage determination," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1573-1599, December.
    8. Layard, Richard & Nickell, Stephen & Jackman, Richard, 2005. "Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199279173.
    9. Buiter, Willem H. & Kletzer, Kenneth M., 1991. "The welfare economics of cooperative and noncooperative fiscal policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 215-244.
    10. Blanchard, Olivier J, 1985. "Debt, Deficits, and Finite Horizons," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(2), pages 223-247, April.
    11. Jonathan Eaton, 1987. "A Dynamic Specific-Factors Model of International Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 54(2), pages 325-338.
    12. Persson, Torsten, 1985. "Deficits and intergenerational welfare in open economies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1-2), pages 67-84, August.
    13. Pissarides, Christopher A., 1998. "The impact of employment tax cuts on unemployment and wages; The role of unemployment benefits and tax structure," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 155-183, January.
    14. Fried, Joel & Howitt, Peter, 1988. "Fiscal deficits, international trade and welfare," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1-2), pages 1-22, February.
    15. repec:bla:scandj:v:97:y:1995:i:3:p:385-99 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Devereux, Michael B. & Lockwood, Ben, 1991. "Trade unions, non-binding wage agreements, and capital accumulation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1411-1426, October.
    17. Chamley, Christophe & Wright, Brian D., 1987. "Fiscal incidence in an overlapping generations model with a fixed asset," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 3-24, February.
    18. repec:bla:econom:v:58:y:1991:i:230:p:139-53 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Kotlikoff, Laurence J., 2002. "Generational policy," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 27, pages 1873-1932, Elsevier.
    20. Broer, D. Peter & Lassila, Jukka, . "Pension Policies and Public Debt in Dynamic CGE Models," ETLA A, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, number 23, June.
    21. Chang, Roberto, 1990. "International coordination of fiscal deficits," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 347-366, June.
    22. de la Croix, David & Licandro, Omar, 1994. "Underemployment, Capital Irreversibility and Growth under Trade Unionism," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 1994003, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    23. repec:bla:scandj:v:102:y:2000:i:3:p:349-71 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Frenkel, Jacob A & Razin, Assaf, 1986. "Fiscal Policies in the World Economy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 564-594, June.
    25. Eric M. Engen & Jonathan Gruber, 1995. "Unemployment Insurance and Precautionary Saving," NBER Working Papers 5252, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Debi Prasad Bal & Badri Narayan Rath, 2016. "Is Public Debt a Burden for India?," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 35(2), pages 184-201, June.

    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. Erling Steigum Jr., "undated". "Fiscal Deficits, Asset Prices and Intergenerational Distribution in an Open Unionized Economy," EPRU Working Paper Series 97-19, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    2. Costain, James S. & Reiter, Michael, 2008. "Business cycles, unemployment insurance, and the calibration of matching models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 1120-1155, April.
    3. Jung Young-Cheol & Quyen Nguyen V., 2012. "The Global Transmission of Government Debt," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-24, July.
    4. Michael Bräuninger, 2005. "Social Security, Unemployment, and Growth," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(4), pages 423-434, August.
    5. Bertil Holmlund, 2002. "Labor Taxation in Search Equilibrium with Home Production," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 3(4), pages 415-430, November.
    6. Marco de Pinto, 2012. "Unemployment Benefits as Redistribution Scheme for Trade Gains - A Positive Analysis," IAAEU Discussion Papers 201204, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).
    7. Charles Engel & Kenneth Kletzer, 1988. "Tariffs and Saving in a Model with New Families," NBER Working Papers 2521, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Altenburg, Lutz & Straub, Martin, 2001. "Taxes on labour and unemployment in a shirking model with union bargaining," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(6), pages 721-744, December.
    9. Etienne Lehmann & Claudio Lucifora & Simone Moriconi & Bruno Van der Linden, 2016. "Beyond the labour income tax wedge: the unemployment-reducing effect of tax progressivity," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(3), pages 454-489, June.
    10. Daniel Cardona & Fernando Sánchez-Losada, 2006. "Unions, qualification choice, and output," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(1), pages 50-76, January.
    11. Bukowski, Maciej & Lewandowski, Piotr & Koloch, Grzegorz & Baranowska, Anna & Magda, Iga & Szydlowski, Arkadiusz & Bober, Magda & Bieliński, Jacek & Zawistowski, Julian & Sarzalska, Malgorzata, 2008. "Employment in Poland 2007: Security on flexible labour market," MPRA Paper 14284, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Lans Bovenberg, 2003. "Tax Policy and Labor Market Performance," CESifo Working Paper Series 1035, CESifo.
    13. Nadja Dwenger & Pia Rattenhuber & Viktor Steiner, 2019. "Sharing the Burden? Empirical Evidence on Corporate Tax Incidence," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(4), pages 107-140, November.
    14. Riedl, Arno & van Winden, Frans, 2007. "An experimental investigation of wage taxation and unemployment in closed and open economies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 871-900, May.
    15. Bovenberg, A.L., 2003. "Tax Policy and Labor Market Performance," Other publications TiSEM 68fd52eb-a6d6-4300-8636-c, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    16. Nickell, Stephen & Nunziata, Luca & Ochel, Wolfgang & Quintini, Glenda, 2001. "The Beveridge curve, unemployment and wages in the OECD from the 1960s to the 1990s - preliminary version," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20113, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Helge Sanner, 2003. "Self‐financing Unemployment Insurance and Bargaining Structure," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 17(2), pages 229-246, June.
    18. António Brandão & Joana Pinho, 2018. "Productivity Shocks in a Union‐Duopoly Model," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 86(6), pages 722-756, December.
    19. Lans Bovenberg, A., 1993. "Investment-promoting policies in open economies : The importance of intergenerational and international distributional effects," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 3-54, May.
    20. García, José Ramón & Sala, Hector, 2008. "The tax system incidence on unemployment: A country-specific analysis for the OECD economies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 1232-1245, November.

    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:ces:ceswps:_587. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.