IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rim/rimwps/12_14.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Capacity Choice and Welfare under Alternative Unionisation Structures

Author

Listed:
  • Luciano Fanti

    (Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Italy)

  • Nicola Meccheri

    (Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Italy)

Abstract

This paper studies how unionisation structures that differ in the degree of wage setting centralisation interplay with the strategic choice of production capacity by firms and how this affects product market outcomes. When labour markets are unionised and firms compete in quantities, they typically opt for under-capacity in order to dampen the unions' wage claims. This is in contrast with the conventional choice of over-capacity that applies when labour markets are competitive. Moreover, the level of capacity is generally more efficient under centralised unionisation than in a decentralised structure. Relative to more general welfare outcomes, profits are always higher under decentralised unionisation, but both consumer surplus and overall welfare can be higher under a centralised structure, depending on the unions' preference towards wages or employment. Introducing product differentiation and price competition enlarges the range of situations, in which centralised unionisation is welfare-enhancing.

Suggested Citation

  • Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2014. "Capacity Choice and Welfare under Alternative Unionisation Structures," Working Paper series 12_14, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    • Handle: RePEc:rim:rimwps:12_14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.rcea.org/RePEc/pdf/wp12_14.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Justus Haucap & Christian Wey, 2004. "Unionisation structures and innovation incentives," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(494), pages 149-165, March.
    2. Mónica Correa‐López, 2007. "Price and Quantity Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly with Upstream Suppliers," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(2), pages 469-505, June.
    3. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:12:y:2007:i:26:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Rupayan Pal & Bibhas Saha, 2008. "Union-oligopoly bargaining and entry deterrence: a reassessment of limit pricing," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 95(2), pages 121-147, November.
    5. Brander, James A. & Spencer, Barbara J., 1988. "Unionized oligopoly and international trade policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3-4), pages 217-234, May.
    6. Justus Haucap & Uwe Pauly & Christian Wey, 2007. "A Cartel Analysis of the German Labor Institutions and its Implications for Labor Market Reforms," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 163(3), pages 503-516, September.
    7. Nickell, Stephen & Layard, Richard, 1999. "Labor market institutions and economic performance," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 46, pages 3029-3084, Elsevier.
    8. Naylor, Robin, 1999. "Union Wage Strategies and International Trade," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(452), pages 102-125, January.
    9. Lopez, Monica Correa & Naylor, Robin A., 2004. "The Cournot-Bertrand profit differential: A reversal result in a differentiated duopoly with wage bargaining," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 681-696, June.
    10. Mukherjee, Arijit & Pennings, Enrico, 2011. "Unionization structure, licensing and innovation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 232-241, March.
    11. Hikaru Ogawa & Akira Nishimori, 2004. "Do Firms Always Choose Excess Capacity?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 12(2), pages 1-7.
    12. Lommerud, Kjell Erik & Straume, Odd Rune & Sorgard, Lars, 2005. "Downstream merger with upstream market power," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 717-743, April.
    13. Dixit, Avinash, 1980. "The Role of Investment in Entry-Deterrence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(357), pages 95-106, March.
    14. Mezzetti, Claudio & Dinopoulos, Elias, 1991. "Domestic unionization and import competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-2), pages 79-100, August.
    15. Pencavel, John, 1985. " Wages and Employment under Trade Unionism: Microeconomic Models and Macroeconomic Applications," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(2), pages 197-225.
    16. James A. Brander & Barbara J. Spencer, 1983. "Strategic Commitment with R&D: The Symmetric Case," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(1), pages 225-235, Spring.
    17. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2013. "Managerial Delegation under Alternative Unionization Structures," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 27(1), pages 38-57, March.
    18. Dhillon, Amrita & Petrakis, Emmanuel, 2002. "A generalised wage rigidity result," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 285-311, March.
    19. Henrick Horn & Asher Wolinsky, 1988. "Bilateral Monopolies and Incentives for Merger," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(3), pages 408-419, Autumn.
    20. Bughin, Jacques & Vannini, Stefano, 1995. "Strategic direct investment under unionized oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 127-145, March.
    21. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:12:y:2006:i:8:p:1-6 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Vives, Xavier, 1986. "Commitment, flexibility and market outcomes," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 217-229, June.
    23. Yoshihiro Tomaru & Yasuhiko Nakamura & Masayuki Saito, 2009. "Capacity Choice in a Mixed Duopoly with Managerial Delegation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(3), pages 1904-1924.
    24. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:12:y:2004:i:2:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Kurt R. Brekke, 2004. "Competition or Coordination in Hospital Markets with Unionised Labour," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 65-89, March.
    26. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    27. Symeonidis, George, 2010. "Downstream merger and welfare in a bilateral oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 230-243, May.
    28. John H. Pencavel, 1984. "The Tradeoff Between Wages and Employment in Trade Union Objectives," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 99(2), pages 215-231.
    29. Lu, Yuanzhu & Poddar, Sougata, 2005. "Mixed oligopoly and the choice of capacity," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(4), pages 365-374, December.
    30. Constantine Manasakis & Emmanuel Petrakis, 2009. "Union structure and firms' incentives for cooperative R&D investments," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 42(2), pages 665-693, May.
    31. A. Michael Spence, 1977. "Entry, Capacity, Investment and Oligopolistic Pricing," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 8(2), pages 534-544, Autumn.
    32. Hikaru Ogawa, 2006. "Capacity Choice in the Mixed duopoly with Product Differentiation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 12(8), pages 1-6.
    33. repec:zbw:rwirep:0009 is not listed on IDEAS
    34. Arijit Mukherjee & Laixun Zhao, 2007. "Unionization Structure and the Incentives for Foreign Direct Investment," Discussion Paper Series 202, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    35. Zhao, Laixun, 2001. "Unionization, vertical markets, and the outsourcing of multinationals," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 187-202, October.
    36. Bulow, Jeremy & Geanakoplos, John & Klemperer, Paul, 1985. "Holding Idle Capacity to Deter Entry [The Role of Investment in Entry Deterrence]," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 95(377), pages 178-182, March.
    37. Dowrick, Steve & Spencer, Barbara J, 1994. "Union Attitudes to Labor-Saving Innovation: When Are Unions Luddites?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(2), pages 316-344, April.
    38. Basu, Kaushik & Singh, Nirvikar, 1990. "Entry-Deterrence in Stackelberg Perfect Equilibria," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 31(1), pages 61-71, February.
    39. Robert J. Flanagan, 1999. "Macroeconomic Performance and Collective Bargaining: An International Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(3), pages 1150-1175, September.
    40. Nicola Meccheri & Luciano Fanti, 2014. "Managerial Delegation Contracts under Centralized Unionization," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(1), pages 51-66, January.
    41. Dowrick, Steve, 1989. "Union-Oligopoly Bargaining," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(398), pages 1123-1142, December.
    42. Shoji Haruna, 1996. "A Note on Holding Excess Capacity to Deter Entry in a Labour-Managed Industry," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 29(2), pages 493-499, May.
    43. Mei Wen & Dan Sasaki, 2001. "Would Excess Capacity in Public Firms Be Socially Optimal?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 77(238), pages 283-290, September.
    44. Wen, Mei & Sasaki, Dan, 2001. "Would Excess Capacity in Public Firms Be Socially Optimal?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 77(238), pages 283-290, September.
    45. Arijit Mukherjee & Kullapat Suetrong, 2012. "Unionisation Structure and Outward Foreign Direct Investment," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 168(2), pages 266-279, June.
    46. Stewart, Geoff, 1991. "Strategic Entry Interactions Involving Profit-Maximising and Labour-Managed Firms," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(4), pages 570-583, October.
    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. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2017. "Unionization Regimes, Capacity Choice by Firms and Welfare Outcomes," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 85(6), pages 661-681, December.
    2. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2013. "Managerial Delegation under Alternative Unionization Structures," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 27(1), pages 38-57, March.
    3. Nicola Meccheri & Luciano Fanti, 2012. "Managerial Delegation Schemes in a Duopoly with Endogenous Production Costs: A Comparison of Sales and Relative Profit Delegation under Centralised Unionisation," Working Paper series 44_12, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    4. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2016. "Non-Rigid Wages And Merger Profitability Reversal Under Convex Costs And Centralized Unionization," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 383-395, October.
    5. Kangsik Choi & DongJoon Lee, 2020. "Do firms choose overcapacity or undercapacity in a vertical structure?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(5), pages 839-847, July.
    6. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2012. "Differentiated duopoly and horizontal merger profitability under monopoly central union and convex costs," Discussion Papers 2012/134, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    7. Meccheri Nicola, 2023. "On the Social Desirability of Centralized Wage Setting when Firms are Run by Biased Managers," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 23(3), pages 701-725, July.
    8. Domenico Buccella & Luciano Fanti & Luca Gori, 2023. "Managerial firms’ profitability, unions, and environmental taxes," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(2), pages 575-598, June.
    9. Nicola Meccheri & Luciano Fanti, 2016. "Should delegation contracts be made before or after union wage setting? Endogenous moves in a managerial-unionized duopoly," Working Paper series 16-18, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    10. Buccella Domenico & Meccheri Nicola, 2024. "Management Centrality in Sequential Bargaining: Implications for Strategic Delegation, Welfare, and Stakeholder Conflict," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 24(1), pages 159-193, January.
    11. Fanti, Luciano & Meccheri, Nicola, 2014. "Profits and competition under alternative technologies in a unionized duopoly with product differentiation," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 157-168.
    12. Luciano Fanti, 2016. "Interlocking cross-ownership in a unionised duopoly: when social welfare benefits from “more collusion”," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 119(1), pages 47-63, September.
    13. Nakamura, Yasuhiko, 2014. "Capacity choice in a duopoly with a consumer-friendly firm and an absolute profit-maximizing firm," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 105-117.
    14. Fanti, Luciano, 2013. "Cross-ownership and unions in a Cournot duopoly: When profits reduce with horizontal product differentiation," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 34-40.
    15. Luciano Fanti, 2017. "An Observable Delay Game with Unionised Managerial Firms," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 64(1), pages 50-69, February.
    16. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2012. "Profits and competition in a unionized duopoly model with product differentiation and labour decreasing returns," Discussion Papers 2012/133, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    17. Yoshihiro Tomaru & Yasuhiko Nakamura & Masayuki Saito, 2009. "Capacity Choice in a Mixed Duopoly with Managerial Delegation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(3), pages 1904-1924.
    18. Luciano Fanti & Luca Gori, 2011. "Stability in a Cournot duopoly under asymmetric unionism," Discussion Papers 2011/123, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    19. Kazuhiro Ohnishi, 2022. "Lifetime Employment and Stackelberg Mixed Duopoly Games with a Foreign Labour-Managed Competitor," Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice, , vol. 21(1), pages 27-42, June.
    20. Arijit Mukherjee & Kullapat Suetrong, 2007. "Unionisation structure and strategic foreign direct investment," Discussion Papers 07/22, University of Nottingham, GEP.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    unionised duopoly; unions' structure; capacity choice; welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:rim:rimwps:12_14. 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: Marco Savioli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rcfeait.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.