IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fau/fauart/v57y2007i5-6p272-291.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Organized Labor and Restructuring: Coal Mining in the Czech Republic and Romania (in English)

Author

Listed:

Abstract

The authors examine the role of organized labor in the restructuring experience of two coal-mining regions in the Czech Republic and Romania in the 1990s. Under similar external circumstances, the Ostrava region of the Czech Republic undertook early gradual restructuring, whereas the Jiu Valley region in Romania did not undertake restructuring until 1997, which was followed by massive layoffs in the sector. The authors conduct a quantitative exercise that accounts for mine productivity, labor-market conditions, and constraints in compensating laid-off miners. They show that the belated restructuring in the Jiu Valley was inefficient: gradual restructuring with reasoned compensation would have benefited both the miners and the state. An important factor in the delayed restructuring was the miners’ resistance to it. The authors discuss what motivated the miners’ opposition and the consequences.

Suggested Citation

  • Jan Bruha & Delia Ionascu & Byeongju Jeong, 2007. "Organized Labor and Restructuring: Coal Mining in the Czech Republic and Romania (in English)," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 57(5-6), pages 272-291, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:fau:fauart:v:57:y:2007:i:5-6:p:272-291
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://journal.fsv.cuni.cz/storage/1076_fau_5_6_2007_00000000074.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dewatripont, Mathias & Roland, Gerard, 1995. "The Design of Reform Packages under Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1207-1223, December.
    2. Jose E. Galdon Sanchez & James A. Schmitz, 2003. "Competitive pressure and labor productivity: world iron ore markets in the 1980s," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 27(Spr), pages 9-23.
    3. Philippe Aghion & Olivier Jean Blanchard, 1994. "On the Speed of Transition in Central Europe," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1994, Volume 9, pages 283-330, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Castanheira, Micael & Roland, Gerard, 2000. "The Optimal Speed of Transition: A General Equilibrium Analysis," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 41(1), pages 219-239, February.
    5. Linden, Ronald H., 1986. "Socialist patrimonialism and the global economy: the case of Romania," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(2), pages 347-380, April.
    6. Acemoglu, Daron & Robinson, James A., 2001. "Inefficient Redistribution," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 95(3), pages 649-661, September.
    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. Ichiro Iwasaki & Taku Suzuki, 2016. "Radicalism Versus Gradualism: An Analytical Survey Of The Transition Strategy Debate," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 807-834, September.
    2. Gerard Rpland, 2001. "The Political Economy of Transition," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 413, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    3. Campos, Nauro F. & Horváth, Roman, 2006. "Reform Redux: Measurement, Determinants and Reversals," IZA Discussion Papers 2093, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. John S. Earle & Scott Gehlbach, 2003. "A Spoonful of Sugar: Privatization and Popular Support for Reform in the Czech Republic," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 1-32, March.
    5. Francesco Caselli & Nicola Gennaioli, 2008. "Economics and Politics of Alternative Institutional Reforms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 1197-1250.
    6. Andrew Atkeson & Patrick J. Kehoe, 2002. "The transition to a new economy after the Second Industrial Revolution," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    7. Randolph Luca Bruno, 2003. "Speed of Transition, Unemployment Dynamics and Nonemployment Policies: Evidence from the Visegrad Countries," LEM Papers Series 2003/23, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    8. Gupta, Nandini & Ham, Jhon C. & Svejnar, Jan, 2008. "Priorities and sequencing in privatization: Evidence from Czech firm panel data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 183-208, February.
    9. Andrew Atkeson & Patrick J. Kehoe, 2007. "Modeling the Transition to a New Economy: Lessons from Two Technological Revolutions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(1), pages 64-88, March.
    10. Kim, Byung-Yeon & Jukka Pirttila, 2003. "The Political Economy of Reforms: Empirical Evidence from Post-Communist Transition in the 1990s," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2003 120, Royal Economic Society.
    11. Karoly Fazekas & Jeno Koltay (ed.), 2002. "The Hungarian Labour Market 2002," The Hungarian Labour Market Yearbooks, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, number 2002, December.
    12. Agnello, Luca & Castro, Vitor & Jalles, João Tovar & Sousa, Ricardo M., 2015. "What determines the likelihood of structural reforms?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 129-145.
    13. Bertocchi, Graziella & Spagat, Michael, 1997. "Structural uncertainty and subsidy removal for economies in transition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 1709-1733, December.
    14. Yuanyuan Ma & Patrick Paul Walsh & Liming Wang, 2017. "Earnings Premium in State Jobs Across Urban China," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 16(2), pages 167-184, Summer.
    15. Vivek H. Dehejia & Douglas W. Dwyer, 1998. "Output and Unemployment Dynamics in Transition," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 178, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    16. S. Fisher & R. Sahay & C. A. Vegh, 1997. "Stabilization and Growth in Transition Economies: The Early Experience," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, vol. 5.
    17. John E. Jackson & Bogdan W. Mach, 2009. "Job creation, job destruction, labour mobility and wages in Poland, 1988–19981," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 17(3), pages 503-530, July.
    18. Aristei, David & Perugini, Cristiano, 2012. "Inequality and reforms in transition countries," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 2-10.
    19. Laurila, Juhani & Singh, Rupinder, 2000. "Sequential reform strategy: The case of Azerbaijan," BOFIT Discussion Papers 8/2000, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    20. Kim, Byung-Yeon & Pirttila, Jukka, 2006. "Political constraints and economic reform: Empirical evidence from the post-communist transition in the 1990s," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 446-466, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    coal; organized labor; restructuring; transition; welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General
    • P31 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Socialist Enterprises and Their Transitions
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

    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:fau:fauart:v:57:y:2007:i:5-6:p:272-291. 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: Natalie Svarcova (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/icunicz.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.