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Union–Firm Bargaining Agenda Revisited: When Unions Have Distinct Preferences

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  • Luciano Fanti
  • Domenico Buccella

Abstract

In this paper we revisit the issue of the scope of bargaining between firms and unions by considering a more general union's utility function with distinct preferences and sequential negotiations. First, we compare exogenously given labour market institutions; i.e., right†to†manage (RTM) and sequential efficient bargaining (SEB). We show that the conventional wisdom, which states that firms always prefer RTM, no longer holds. In fact, when unions are adequately wage aggressive and have strong enough bargaining power, firms may prefer SEB negotiations; however, firms switch their preference to RTM when unions are very strong. Moreover, we show that a conflict of interest between the parties may emerge when unions are sufficiently employment oriented as well as sufficiently wage aggressive and not too strong or too weak in bargaining. Second, we analyse the endogenous choice of the bargaining agenda. We show that a rich plethora of equilibria may occur and new situations of conflict/agreement of interests between the bargaining parties arise in particular when unions are sufficiently wage†aggressive.

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  • Luciano Fanti & Domenico Buccella, 2018. "Union–Firm Bargaining Agenda Revisited: When Unions Have Distinct Preferences," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(1), pages 35-50, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:buecrs:v:70:y:2018:i:1:p:35-50
    DOI: 10.1111/boer.12113
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    Cited by:

    1. Domenico Buccella & Luciano Fanti, 2017. "A game-theoretic approach to the choice of union-oligopoly baargaining agenda," Discussion Papers 2017/214, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    2. Luciano Fanti & Domenico Buccella, 2018. "Social Welfare and Profit-Sharing Rule in a Unionised Duopoly with Profit Tax/Subsidy," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 226(3), pages 59-84, September.

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