IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/qub/wpaper/0904.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Rent Seeking at Plant Level: An Application of the Card and de la Rica Tenure Test to German Works Councils

Author

Listed:
  • John T. Addison
  • Paulino Teixeira
  • Thomas Zwick

Abstract

Low-skilled workers enjoy a large wage advantage in German works council establishments. Since job tenure is also longer for these workers, one explanation might be rent-seeking. If the premium is a compensating wage differential (or a return to unmeasured ability), it should not lead to higher tenure; whereas if it is (partly) rent, lower quits should lead to longer tenure at plants with works councils. Our analysis uses the Card and de la Rica (2006) tenure model, and although the association between skill level and the works council tenure gap is positive it fails to achieve statistical significance in a single equation framework. However, running the tenure equation for separate skill quintiles, we find that those with the highest wage premium have the greatest tenure. As a result, although we cannot be certain that the works council wage mark-up of low-skilled workers is necessarily a non-competitive rent, the observed pattern of job tenure across different skill subsamples is not after all inconsistent with rent-seeking behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • John T. Addison & Paulino Teixeira & Thomas Zwick, 2009. "Rent Seeking at Plant Level: An Application of the Card and de la Rica Tenure Test to German Works Councils," Economics Working Papers 09-04, Queen's Management School, Queen's University Belfast.
    • Handle: RePEc:qub:wpaper:0904
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: ftp://ftp.qub.ac.uk/pub/users/repec/qub/wpaper/MS_WPS_ECO_09_04.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Card & Sara De La Rica, 2006. "Firm-Level Contracting and the Structure of Wages in Spain," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 59(4), pages 573-592, July.
    2. Card, David, 1996. "The Effect of Unions on the Structure of Wages: A Longitudinal Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(4), pages 957-979, July.
    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. Nicole Gürtzgen, 2016. "Estimating the Wage Premium of Collective Wage Contracts: Evidence from Longitudinal Linked Employer–Employee Data," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 294-322, April.
    2. Ramos, Raul & Sanromá, Esteban & Simón, Hipólito, 2018. "Wage Differentials by Bargaining Regime in Spain (2002-2014): An Analysis Using Matched Employer-Employee Data," IZA Discussion Papers 12013, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Nicole Gürtzgen, 2006. "The Effect of Firm- ans Industry-Level Contracts on Wages: Evidence from Longitudinal Linked Employer-Employee Data," ZEW Discussion Papers 06-082, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. Bernd Fitzenberger & Karsten Kohn & Alexander C. Lembcke, 2013. "Union Density and Varieties of Coverage: The Anatomy of Union Wage Effects in Germany," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(1), pages 169-197, January.
    5. John T. Addison & Paulino Teixeira & Thomas Zwick, 2009. "Rent Seeking at Plant Level: An Application of the Card-De la Rica Tenure Model to Workers in German Works Councils," Working Paper series 12_09, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    6. Joan Daouli & Michael Demoussis & Nicholas Giannakopoulos & Ioannis Laliotis, 2013. "Firm-Level Collective Bargaining and Wages in G reece: A Quantile Decomposition Analysis," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 51(1), pages 80-103, March.
    7. Andréasson, Hannes, 2014. "The effect of decentralized wage bargaining on the structure of wages and firm performance," Ratio Working Papers 241, The Ratio Institute.
    8. Brändle, Tobias, 2024. "Unions and Collective Bargaining: The Influence on Wages, Employment and Firm Survival," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1457, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Walsh, Frank, 2013. "The union wage effect and ability bias: Evidence from Ireland," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 296-298.
    10. 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).
    11. Adele Bergin, 2015. "Employer Changes and Wage Changes: Estimation with Measurement Error in a Binary Variable," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 29(2), pages 194-223, June.
    12. Hunt, Jennifer & Laszlo, Sonia, 2005. "Bribery: Who Pays, Who Refuses, What are the Payoffs?," CEPR Discussion Papers 5251, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Lewkowicz Jacek & Lewczuk Anna, 2017. "An Institutional Approach to Trade Union Density. The Case of Legal Origins and Political Ideology," Central European Economic Journal, Sciendo, vol. 2(49), pages 35-49, December.
    14. Du Caju, Philip & Fuss, Catherine & Wintr, Ladislav, 2009. "Understanding sectoral differences in downward real wage rigidity: workforce composition, institutions, technology and competition," Working Paper Series 1006, European Central Bank.
    15. Ponzo, Michela & Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2008. "The Use of Informal Networks in Italian Labor Markets: Efficiency or Favoritisms?," MPRA Paper 11764, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Casanova, Luis. & Alejo, Javier., 2015. "El efecto de la negociación colectiva sobre la distribución de los ingresos laborales evidencia empírica para Argentina en los años dos mil," ILO Working Papers 994875473402676, International Labour Organization.
    17. Baker, Michael & Halberstam, Yosh & Kroft, Kory & Mas, Alexandre & Messacar, Derek, 2024. "The impact of unions on wages in the public sector: Evidence from higher education," CLEF Working Paper Series 67, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    18. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3mjt8d63i195voq228mf1sr91q is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Effrosnyi Adamopoulou & Luis Diez-Catalan & Ernesto Villanueva, "undated". "Staggered Contracts and Unemployment During Recessions," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2022_379, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    20. James Bishop & Iris Chan, 2019. "Is Declining Union Membership Contributing to Low Wages Growth?," RBA Annual Conference Papers acp2019-06, Reserve Bank of Australia.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tenure; Rent seeking; Works councils; Collective agreements; Wage and tenure gaps; Wage quintiles;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • J53 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Labor-Management Relations; Industrial Jurisprudence

    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:qub:wpaper:0904. 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: Mark McGovern (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dequbuk.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.