Monograph on trends in inflation and productivity in Italy, with particular reference to the influence thereon of trade unions - presents an econometric model of the economy, appraises the merits and feasibility of an incomes policy, and covers wages-price relations, income distribution, economic recession and financial policy, etc. Graphs, references and statistical tables.
Richard B. Freeman and James L. Medoff’s now classic 1984 book What Do Unions Do? stimulated an enormous theoretical and empirical literature on the economic impact of trade unions. Trade unions continue to be a significant feature of many labor markets, particularly in developing countries, and issues of labor market regulations and labor institutions remain critically important to researchers and policy makers. The relations between unions and management can range between cooperation and conflict; unions have powerful offsetting wage and non-wage effects that economists and other social scientists have long debated. Do the benefits of unionism exceed the costs to the economy and society writ large, or do the costs exceed the benefits? The Economics of Trade Unions offers the first comprehensive review, analysis and evaluation of the empirical literature on the microeconomic effects of trade unions using the tools of meta-regression analysis to identify and quantify the economic impact of trade unions, as well as to correct research design faults, the effects of selection bias and model misspecification. This volume makes use of a unique dataset of hundreds of empirical studies and their reported estimates of the microeconomic impact of trade unions. Written by three authors who have been at the forefront of this research field (including the co-author of the original volume, What Do Unions Do?), this book offers an overview of a subject that is of huge importance to scholars of labor economics, industrial and employee relations, and human resource management, as well as those with an interest in meta-analysis.
1. An Overview 2. Unionism: Individual and Collective Choice 3. Union Membership and Growth 4. Unions, Bargaining and Strikes 5. Union Effects on Relative Wages 6. Unions, Wage Dispersion and the Distribution of Income 7. Unions and Economic Performance: Productivity, Productivity Growth and Probability 8. Unions and Inflation 9. Unions and Politics
Consists of two papers and comments thereon. The paper "Can Political Models Predict Union Behaviour?" by Professor Robert Flanagan deals with the process of policy formulation within unions. Using collective-choice analysis, examines whether and under what circumstances it is possible for union members to form a collective goal and the ability of union leaders to alter that goal. The paper " Bargaining Structure and Economic Performance" by Karl Ove Moene and Michael Wallerstein discusses the issues of the implications of the level of centralization of wage bargaining on economic performance.
What do unions do and why do they do it? Do they seek to maximise profit for their members, or to obtain better working conditions that benefit society as a whole? Derek H. Aldcroft and Michael J. Oliver here provide one of the first sustained studies of the effects of union activities in terms of economic performance and the impact on the business world. From the rise of the British mass trade union movement in the 1870s to the present day, the book examines the main trends in union development and structure, and the core strategies unions have used to achieve their objectives: the use of strikes, work rules and restrictive practices; workers’ attitudes to innovation; the wage bargaining process. Important assessments are made of the influence of these strategies on investment, innovation, economic growth, and the cost of structure and competitiveness of the UK economy.
This volume seeks to go beyond the microeconomic view of wages as a cost having negative consequences on a given firm, to consider the positive macroeconomic dynamics associated with wages as a major component of aggregate demand.
