IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/33510.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Organizational determinants of wage moderation

Author

Listed:
  • Baccaro, Lucio
  • Simoni, Marco

Abstract

This article contributes to the political economic literature regarding the effects of industrial relations institutions on national economic outcomes. Based on an econometric analysis of the determinants of wage moderation in sixteen industrialized countries between 1974 and 2000, it argues that the organizational characteristics of trade unions have a significant impact on wage dynamics. Controlling for a number of institutional and economic factors, the countries in which trade union confederations directly involve workers in the process of collective bargaining ratification have on average lower wage growth relative to productivity than others. The authors also find that collective bargaining coordination and contract ratification magnify each other's wage-dampening effect. Through case studies of Ireland and Italy, the article examines the causal mechanisms underlying the uncovered statistical regularities and concludes that, particularly at a time in which classic political exchange is waning, worker involvement in contract ratification allows confederation leaders to resolve conflicting claims inside their organizations at lower wage levels than are achieved by a less participatory governance process.

Suggested Citation

  • Baccaro, Lucio & Simoni, Marco, 2010. "Organizational determinants of wage moderation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 33510, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:33510
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/33510/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Soskice, David, 1990. "Wage Determination: The Changing Role of Institutions in Advanced Industrialized Countries," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 6(4), pages 36-61, Winter.
    2. Lucio Baccaro, 2003. "What is Alive and What is Dead in the Theory of Corporatism," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 41(4), pages 683-706, December.
    3. Martin Hellwig, 2004. "The Relation between Real Wage Rates and Employment: An Intertemporal General‐ Equilibrium Analysis," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 5(3), pages 263-295, August.
    4. Layard, Richard & Nickell, Stephen & Jackman, Richard, 2005. "Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199279173.
    5. Martin, Cathie Jo & Swank, Duane, 2004. "Does the Organization of Capital Matter? Employers and Active Labor Market Policy at the National and Firm Levels," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 98(4), pages 593-611, November.
    6. Luskin, Robert C. & Fishkin, James S. & Jowell, Roger, 2002. "Considered Opinions: Deliberative Polling in Britain," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(3), pages 455-487, July.
    7. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521857420 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. James N. Druckman & Kjersten R. Nelson, 2003. "Framing and Deliberation: How Citizens' Conversations Limit Elite Influence," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(4), pages 729-745, October.
    9. Baccaro, Lucio & Rei, Diego, 2007. "Institutional Determinants of Unemployment in OECD Countries: Does the Deregulatory View Hold Water?," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(3), pages 527-569, July.
    10. Eichengreen, Barry & Iversen, Torben, 1999. "Institutions and Economic Performance: Evidence from the Labour Market," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 15(4), pages 121-138, Winter.
    11. Anke Hassel, 2003. "The Politics of Social Pacts," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 41(4), pages 707-726, December.
    12. Farber, Henry S, 1978. "Individual Preferences and Union Wage Determination: The Case of the United Mine Workers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 923-942, October.
    13. Carlin, Wendy & Soskice, David, 1990. "Macroeconomics and the Wage Bargain: A Modern Approach to Employment, Inflation, and the Exchange Rate," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198772446.
    14. Mares,Isabela, 2006. "Taxation, Wage Bargaining, and Unemployment," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521674119, September.
    15. Hall, Peter A. & Franzese, Robert J., 1998. "Mixed Signals: Central Bank Independence, Coordinated Wage Bargaining, and European Monetary Union," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(3), pages 505-535, July.
    16. Barabas, Jason, 2004. "How Deliberation Affects Policy Opinions," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 98(4), pages 687-701, November.
    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. Patrick Lunz, 2013. "What's left of the left? Partisanship and the political economy of labour market reform: why has the social democratic party in Germany liberalised labour markets?," Europe in Question Discussion Paper Series of the London School of Economics (LEQs) 5, London School of Economics / European Institute.
    2. Chris Minns & Marian Rizov, 2015. "Institutions, history and wage bargaining outcomes: international evidence from the post-World War Two era," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(3), pages 358-375, April.
    3. Patrick Lunz, 2013. "What's left of the left? Partisanship and the political economy of labour market reform: why has the social democratic party in Germany liberalised labour markets?," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 65, European Institute, LSE.
    4. Johnston, Alison, 2011. "The revenge of Baumol's cost disease?: monetary union and the rise of public sector wage inflation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 53280, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Sung Ho Park & Kevin L Young, 2015. "Wage moderation in the public sector: The experiences of 11 EMU countries in the recent economic crisis, 2008–2010," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 36(4), pages 575-609, November.
    6. Thommen, Yann, 2022. "Reforms of collective bargaining institutions in European Union countries: Bad timing, bad outcomes?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Fritz W. Scharpf, 2011. "Monetary Union, Fiscal Crisis and the Preemption of Democracy," Europe in Question Discussion Paper Series of the London School of Economics (LEQs) 6, London School of Economics / European Institute.
    8. Scharpf, Fritz W., 2011. "Monetary union, fiscal crisis and the preemption of democracy," MPIfG Discussion Paper 11/11, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    9. Bernd Brandl & Christian Lyhne Ibsen, 2017. "Instability and Change in Collective Bargaining: An Analysis of the Effects of Changing Institutional Structures," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 55(3), pages 527-550, September.
    10. Christian Lyhne Ibsen & Lisa Sezer & Virginia Doellgast, 2023. "Coordination versus organization: Diverging logics of firm cooperation in Denmark and Sweden," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(3), pages 526-549, September.
    11. Braakmann, Nils & Brandl, Bernd, 2016. "The Efficacy of Hybrid Collective Bargaining Systems: An Analysis of the Impact of Collective Bargaining on Company Performance in Europe," MPRA Paper 70025, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Alison Johnston, 2012. "European Economic and Monetary Union’s perverse effects on sectoral wage inflation: Negative feedback effects from institutional change?," European Union Politics, , vol. 13(3), pages 345-366, September.
    13. Laust Høgedahl & Christian Lyhne Ibsen & Flemming Ibsen, 2024. "Public sector wage bargaining and the balanced growth model: Denmark and Sweden compared," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 30(1), pages 55-75, March.
    14. Fritz W. Scharpf, 2011. "Monetary Union, Fiscal Crisis and the Preemption of Democracy," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 36, European Institute, LSE.
    15. Scharpf, Fritz W., 2011. "Monetary union, fiscal crisis and the preemption of democracy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 53448, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Huo, Jingjing, 2015. "How Nations Innovate: The Political Economy of Technological Innovation in Affluent Capitalist Economies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198735847.
    17. Christian Lyhne Ibsen, 2016. "The Role of Mediation Institutions in Sweden and Denmark after Centralized Bargaining," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(2), pages 285-310, 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. repec:eid:wpaper:01/10 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Horst Feldmann, 2010. "Venture Capital Availability and Labor Market Performance in Industrial Countries: Evidence Based on Survey Data," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 23-54, February.
    3. Eckhard Hein, 2002. "Monetary policy and wage bargaining in the EMU: restrictive ECB policies, high unemployment, nominal wage restraint and inflation above the target," Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 55(222), pages 299-337.
    4. Peter Mooslechner & Martin Schürz, 2001. "The Interaction of Wage Bargaining Institutions and an Independent Central Bank – A Methodological Reflection on Current Theories," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 487-506, December.
    5. Robert Franzese, 2001. "Strategic Interactions of Monetary Policymakers and Wage/Price Bargainers: A Review with Implications for the European Common-Currency Area," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 457-486, December.
    6. Simon Sturn, 2011. "Labour market regimes and unemployment in OECD countries," IMK Working Paper 6-2011, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    7. Gavin Cameron & Chris Wallace, 2002. "Macroeconomic Performance in the Bretton Woods Era and After," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 18(4), pages 479-494.
    8. Wolfgang Pollan, 2012. "Incomes Policies, Expectations and the NAIRU," WIFO Working Papers 433, WIFO.
    9. Simon STURN, 2013. "Are corporatist labour markets different? Labour market regimes and unemployment in OECD countries," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 152(2), pages 237-254, June.
    10. Hein, Eckhard, 2003. "Die NAIRU: Eine post-keynesianische Interpretation," WSI Working Papers 113, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    11. Baccaro, Lucio & Neimanns, Erik, 2021. "Determinants of wage (dis-)satisfaction: Trade exposure, export-led growth, and the irrelevance of bargaining structure," MPIfG Discussion Paper 21/3, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    12. Engelbert Stockhammer & Simon Sturn, 2012. "The impact of monetary policy on unemployment hysteresis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(21), pages 2743-2756, July.
    13. Christoph S. Weber, 2020. "The unemployment effect of central bank transparency," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(6), pages 2947-2975, December.
    14. Robert Vergeer & Alfred Kleinknecht, 2012. "Do Flexible Labor Markets Indeed Reduce Unemployment? A Robustness Check," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 70(4), pages 451-467, December.
    15. Robert VERGEER & Alfred KLEINKNECHT, 2014. "Do labour market reforms reduce labour productivity growth? A panel data analysis of 20 OECD countries (1960–2004)," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 153(3), pages 365-393, September.
    16. Jaakko Kiander & Pekka Sauramo & Hannu Tanninen, 2011. "Finnish incomes policy as corporatist political exchange: development of social capital and the social wage," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 17(4), pages 515-531, November.
    17. Hein, Eckhard, 2001. "Institutions and macroeconomic performance: Central bank independence, labour market institutions and the perspectives for inflation and employment in the European Monetary Union," WSI Working Papers 95, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    18. Tyrowicz, Joanna, 2009. "When Eastern Labour Markets Enter Western Europe CEECs. Labour Market Institutions upon Euro Zone Accession," MPRA Paper 15045, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Sabina Avdagic, 2015. "Does Deregulation Work? Reassessing the Unemployment Effects of Employment Protection," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 53(1), pages 6-26, March.
    20. Schettkat, Ronald, 2003. "Koordination von Lohnverhandlungen (Coordination of wage bargaining)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(4), pages 634-648.
    21. Chris Minns & Marian Rizov, 2015. "Institutions, history and wage bargaining outcomes: international evidence from the post-World War Two era," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(3), pages 358-375, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: 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:ehl:lserod:33510. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.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.