Trade and unions: Does size matter?

Autor: Stella Capuano, Hans-Jörg Schmerer, Andreas Hauptmann
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Economic Modelling. 84:66-75
ISSN: 0264-9993
DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2019.03.008
Popis: Our empirical analysis builds upon the hypothesis that unions are detrimental to a firm's efficiency. Using a rich survey of German manufacturers, we investigate firm-level determinants on the probability of collective wage bargaining with particular focus on the impact of a firm's engagement in foreign markets. An interesting and very robust finding is that exporters are less likely to engage in union wage bargaining. This finding is in line with a pessimistic perception of unions. The negative effect of collective bargaining can be offset by efficiency gains for larger exporters, who can benefit from operation cost saving effects. Size does matter as larger firms export and may find bargaining with a single entity representing the workforce more convenient than bargaining with each worker individually. We are using firm level information on IT investment as instrument for the export dummy and successfully test for the validity of this instrument.
Databáze: OpenAIRE