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The Welfare and Employment Effects of Centralized Public Sector Wage Bargaining

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  • GABRIELE CARDULLO

Abstract

In many countries, the government pays almost identical nominal wages to workers living in regions with notable economic disparities. By developing a two-region general equilibrium model with endogenous migration and search frictions in the labour market, I study the differences in terms of unemployment, real wages, and welfare between a regional wage bargaining process and a national one in the public sector. Adopting the latter makes residents in the poorer region better off and residents of the richer region worse off. Private sector employment decreases in the poorer region and it increases in the richer one. Under some conditions, the unemployment rate in the poorer region soars. Simulation results also show that a regional bargaining scheme may increase inequality.
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  • Gabriele Cardullo, 2017. "The Welfare and Employment Effects of Centralized Public Sector Wage Bargaining," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 19(2), pages 490-510, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:19:y:2017:i:2:p:490-510
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General
    • R13 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General Equilibrium and Welfare Economic Analysis of Regional Economies

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