IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ivi/wpasad/2000-21.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Union Structure And The Incentives For Innovation In Oligopoly

Author

Listed:
  • Miguel González-Maestre

    (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona)

  • Vicente Calabuig

    (Universitat de València)

Abstract

In this paper we consider the effect of union structure on the adoption of innovation in the context of Cournot duopoly. With a market size large enough we show that the incentive to innovate is higher under a decentralized union structure (with each firm facing its own independent union) than under an industry-wide union. However, for a small market size (or, equivalently, for sufficiently drastic potential innovation) the new technology is more likely to be adopted in the presence of a centralized union. This result goes against the conventional view that unionization harms the incentive to innovate.

Suggested Citation

  • Miguel González-Maestre & Vicente Calabuig, 2000. "Union Structure And The Incentives For Innovation In Oligopoly," Working Papers. Serie AD 2000-21, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    • Handle: RePEc:ivi:wpasad:2000-21
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ivie.es/downloads/docs/wpasad/wpasad-2000-21.pdf
    File Function: Fisrt version / Primera version, 2000
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:ecorec:v:69:y:1993:i:207:p:393-404 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:bla:scandj:v:87:y:1985:i:2:p:160-93 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Davidson, Carl, 1988. "Multiunit Bargaining in Oligopolistic Industries," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(3), pages 397-422, July.
    4. Steve Dowrick, 1993. "Enterprise Bargaining, Union Structure and Wages," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 69(4), pages 393-404, December.
    5. Dowrick, Steve & Spencer, Barbara J, 1994. "Union Attitudes to Labor-Saving Innovation: When Are Unions Luddites?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(2), pages 316-344, April.
    6. Dowrick, Steve, 1989. "Union-Oligopoly Bargaining," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(398), pages 1123-1142, December.
    7. De Fraja, Giovanni, 1993. "Staggered vs. synchronised wage setting in oligopoly," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1507-1522, December.
    8. Tauman, Y & Weiss, Y, 1987. "Labor Unions and the Adoption of New Technology," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(4), pages 477-501, October.
    9. Oswald, Andrew J, 1982. "The Microeconomic Theory of the Trade Union," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(367), pages 576-595, September.
    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. Calabuig, Vicente & Gonzalez-Maestre, Miguel, 2002. "Union structure and incentives for innovation," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 177-192, March.
    2. Bárcena Ruiz, Juan Carlos & Campo Corredera, María Luz, 2003. "Timing of Wage Setting when Firms Invest in R&D," IKERLANAK 1134-8984, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    3. Göddeke, Anna & Haucap, Justus & Herr, Annika & Wey, Christian, 2011. "Stabilität und Wandel von Arbeitsmarktinstitutionen aus wettbewerbsökonomischer Sicht," DICE Ordnungspolitische Perspektiven 10, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    4. Juan Carlos Bárcena‐Ruiz & M. Luz Campo, 2009. "R&D Investments And Sequential Wage Negotiations," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 183-202, September.
    5. Julia Müller & Thorsten Upmann, 2013. "Centralised Labour Market Negotiations," CESifo Working Paper Series 4470, CESifo.
    6. Domenico Buccella & Luciano Fanti, 2022. "Downstream competition and profits under different input price bargaining structures," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 251-268, August.
    7. Kjell Erik Lommerud & Odd Rune Straume, 2012. "Employment Protection Versus Flexicurity: On Technology Adoption in Unionised Firms," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(1), pages 177-199, March.
    8. Fanti, Luciano, 2013. "Cross-ownership and unions in a Cournot duopoly: When profits reduce with horizontal product differentiation," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 34-40.
    9. 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.
    10. Emmanuel Petrakis & Minas Vlassis, 1999. "The strategic role of minimum sectorial wages in oligopoly: a case for the Spanish labour market," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 23(3), pages 331-350, September.
    11. A. Jorge Padilla & Samuel Bentolila & Juan J. Dolado, 1996. "Wage Bargaining in Industries with Market Power," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(4), pages 535-564, December.
    12. Lommerud, Kjell Erik & Meland, Frode & Rune Straume, Odd, 2006. "Globalisation and union opposition to technological change," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 1-23, January.
    13. Wei Ding, 2015. "Decentralized union-oligopoly bargaining when wages signal strength," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 114(3), pages 239-254, April.
    14. Kjell Erik Lommerud & Odd Rune Straume & Lars Sørgard, 2006. "National versus international mergers in unionized oligopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(1), pages 212-233, March.
    15. Buccella Domenico & Meccheri Nicola, 2024. "Management Centrality in Sequential Bargaining: Implications for Strategic Delegation, Welfare, and Stakeholder Conflict," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 24(1), pages 159-193, January.
    16. Thorsten Upmann & Julia Müller, 2014. "The Structure of Firm-Specific Labour Unions," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 170(2), pages 336-364, June.
    17. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2016. "Endogenous timing of managerial contracts in unionised oligopolies," Working Paper series 16-19, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    18. M. Correa-López, 2006. "A model of unionized oligopoly in general equilibrium," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0605, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    19. Asproudis, Elias & Filippiadis, Eleftherios & Tian, Mo, 2022. "Timing of environmental technological choice and trade unions' climate solidarity," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    20. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2013. "Managerial Delegation under Alternative Unionization Structures," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 27(1), pages 38-57, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Oligopoly; Unions; Innovation.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

    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:ivi:wpasad:2000-21. 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: Departamento de Edición (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ievages.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.