Is Unemployment Lower if Unions Bargain over Employment?

The authors consider an economy in which all firms are unionized and bargain with their own union. If unions bargain over employment as well as wages, employment will be the same as if they bargain over wages only, provided that the production function is Cobb-Douglas. (Employment will be higher if...

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Main Authors: Layard, R, Nickell, S
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 1990
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author Layard, R
Nickell, S
author_facet Layard, R
Nickell, S
author_sort Layard, R
collection OXFORD
description The authors consider an economy in which all firms are unionized and bargain with their own union. If unions bargain over employment as well as wages, employment will be the same as if they bargain over wages only, provided that the production function is Cobb-Douglas. (Employment will be higher if the elasticity of substitution between labor and capital is smaller than unity.) If the authors start from a fully competitive labor market and then move to one of efficient bargaining (over wages and employment), employment falls. This is so even if the marginal utility of income is constant, so that bargaining is "strongly efficient."
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spelling oxford-uuid:1acda6b7-f9a2-466a-84cc-4268e4db93922022-03-26T10:56:52ZIs Unemployment Lower if Unions Bargain over Employment?Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:1acda6b7-f9a2-466a-84cc-4268e4db9392EnglishDepartment of Economics - ePrints1990Layard, RNickell, SThe authors consider an economy in which all firms are unionized and bargain with their own union. If unions bargain over employment as well as wages, employment will be the same as if they bargain over wages only, provided that the production function is Cobb-Douglas. (Employment will be higher if the elasticity of substitution between labor and capital is smaller than unity.) If the authors start from a fully competitive labor market and then move to one of efficient bargaining (over wages and employment), employment falls. This is so even if the marginal utility of income is constant, so that bargaining is "strongly efficient."
spellingShingle Layard, R
Nickell, S
Is Unemployment Lower if Unions Bargain over Employment?
title Is Unemployment Lower if Unions Bargain over Employment?
title_full Is Unemployment Lower if Unions Bargain over Employment?
title_fullStr Is Unemployment Lower if Unions Bargain over Employment?
title_full_unstemmed Is Unemployment Lower if Unions Bargain over Employment?
title_short Is Unemployment Lower if Unions Bargain over Employment?
title_sort is unemployment lower if unions bargain over employment
work_keys_str_mv AT layardr isunemploymentlowerifunionsbargainoveremployment
AT nickells isunemploymentlowerifunionsbargainoveremployment