IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/regstd/v48y2014i2p301-317.html

The Regional Dimension of Collective Wage Bargaining: The Case of Belgium

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Rusinek
  • Ilan Tojerow

Abstract

Rusinek M. and Tojerow I. The regional dimension of collective wage bargaining: the case of Belgium, Regional Studies . The potential failure of national industry agreements to take into account productivity levels in the least productive regions has been considered as one of the causes of regional unemployment in European countries. This paper investigates the role of the collective bargaining structure in the relationship between regional wage and productivity differentials. Using a rich Belgian-linked employer-employee dataset, it is found that the more an industry is decentralized in terms of wage setting, the more regional differences in productivity are reflected in wages. It is concluded that the current Belgian wage-setting system already includes mechanisms that allow regional productivity to be taken into account.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Rusinek & Ilan Tojerow, 2014. "The Regional Dimension of Collective Wage Bargaining: The Case of Belgium," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 301-317, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:48:y:2014:i:2:p:301-317
    DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2011.632625
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00343404.2011.632625
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00343404.2011.632625?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Uwe Blien & Wolfgang Dauth & Thorsten Schank & Claus Schnabel, 2013. "The Institutional Context of an ‘Empirical Law’: The Wage Curve under Different Regimes of Collective Bargaining," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 51(1), pages 59-79, March.
    2. Mr. Athanasios Vamvakidis, 2008. "Regional Wage Differentiation and Wage Bargaining Systems in the EU," IMF Working Papers 2008/043, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Lucio R. Pench & Paolo Sestito & Elisabetta Frontini, 1999. "Some unpleasant arithmetics of regional unemployment in the EU. Are there any lessons for EMU?," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 134, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    4. S. Davies & M. Hallet, 2001. "Policy responses to regional unemployment:Lessons from Germany, Spain and Italy," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 161, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    5. Romano Piras, 2012. "Internal Migration Across Italian Regions: Macroeconomic Determinants And Accommodating Potential For A Dualistic Economy," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 80(4), pages 499-524, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eleonora Bartoloni & Andrea Marino & Maurizio Baussola & Davide Romaniello, 2023. "Urban Non-urban Agglomeration Divide: Is There a Gap in Productivity and Wages?," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 9(2), pages 789-827, July.
    2. François Rycx & Yves Saks & Ilan Tojerow, 2016. "Misalignment of productivity and wages across regions ? Evidence from Belgian matched panel data," Working Paper Research 300, National Bank of Belgium.
    3. Hans R. A. Koster, 2013. "Rocketing Rents The magnitude and attenuation of agglomeration economies in the commercial property market," SERC Discussion Papers 0125, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Inés P. Murillo Huertas & Raúl Ramos & Hipólito Simón, 2020. "Revisiting interregional wage differentials: New evidence from Spain with matched employer‐employee data," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 296-347, March.
    5. Jozef Konings & Luca Marcolin, 2014. "Do wages reflect labor productivity? The case of Belgian regions," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-21, December.
    6. Eline Moens & Louis Lippens & Philippe Sterkens & Johannes Weytjens & Stijn Baert, 2022. "The COVID-19 crisis and telework: a research survey on experiences, expectations and hopes," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(4), pages 729-753, June.

    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. Jozef Konings & Luca Marcolin, 2014. "Do wages reflect labor productivity? The case of Belgian regions," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-21, December.
    2. Effrosyni Adamopoulou & Ernesto Villanueva, 2020. "Wage Determination and the Bite of Collective Contracts in Italy and Spain: Evidence From the Metalworking Industry," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2020_176, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    3. Marelli, Enrico, 1999. "Convergence and asymmetries in the employment dynamics of the European regions," ERSA conference papers ersa99pa120, European Regional Science Association.
    4. François Rycx & Yves Saks & Ilan Tojerow, 2016. "Misalignment of productivity and wages across regions ? Evidence from Belgian matched panel data," Working Paper Research 300, National Bank of Belgium.
    5. Evangelia Papapetrou & Pinelopi Tsalaporta, 2018. "Macroeconomic outcomes, collective bargaining and intersectoral productivity differentials: a panel approach," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 45(4), pages 765-799, November.
    6. Steffen Müller & Jens Stegmaier, 2020. "Why is there resistance to works councils in Germany? An economic perspective," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 41(3), pages 540-561, August.
    7. Adalgiso Amendola & Floro Ernesto Caroleo & Gianluigi Coppola, 2003. "Regional differences in the European labour market," ERSA conference papers ersa03p200, European Regional Science Association.
    8. Raul Ramos & Catia Nicodemo & Esteve Sanromá, 2015. "A spatial panel wage curve for Spain," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 125-139, July.
    9. Hirsch, Boris & Schnabel, Claus, 2011. "Let's Take Bargaining Models Seriously: The Decline in Union Power in Germany, 1992-2009," IZA Discussion Papers 5875, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Hochreiter, Eduard & Schmidt-Hebbel, Klaus & Winckler, Georg, 2002. "Monetary union: European lessons, Latin American prospects," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 297-321, December.
    11. Fredrik Carlsen & Kåre Johansen, 2004. "Subjective Measures of Employment Opportunities and Interregional Migration," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 18(4), pages 563-589, December.
    12. Terrell, Katherine & Jurajda, Štěpán, 2007. "Regional Unemployment and Human Capital in Transition Economies," CEPR Discussion Papers 6569, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    13. Romano Piras, 2013. "Can the Augmented Solow Model with Migration Explain the Italian Internal Brain Drain?," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 27(2), pages 140-163, June.
    14. Uwe Jirjahn, 2013. "Der Beitrag der Arbeitsmarktökonomik zur Erforschung von Gewerkschaften und Tarifvertragsbeziehungen in Deutschland," Research Papers in Economics 2013-03, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    15. Roberto Bande & Melchor Fernandez & Victor Montuenga, 2007. "Regional Disparities in the Unemployment Rate: The Role of the Wage-setting Mechanism in Spain, 1987-92," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 235-251.
    16. Roberto Basile & Luca De Benedictis, 2004. "Regional Unemployment and Productivity in Europe and the US," ERSA conference papers ersa04p38, European Regional Science Association.
    17. Rawaa Laajimi & Julie Le Gallo, 2022. "Push and pull factors in Tunisian internal migration: The role of human capital," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 771-799, June.
    18. Adamopoulou, Effrosyni & Villanueva, Ernesto, 2022. "Wage determination and the bite of collective contracts in Italy and Spain," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    19. Keisuke Kokubun, 2020. "What factors have caused Japanese prefectures to attract a larger population influx?," Papers 2009.07144, arXiv.org.
    20. Padoa Schioppa, Fiorella Kostoris & Basile, Roberto, 2002. "Unemployment Dynamics of the 'Mezzogiornos of Europe': Lessons for the Mezzogiorno of Italy," CEPR Discussion Papers 3594, Centre for Economic Policy Research.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts

    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:taf:regstd:v:48:y:2014:i:2:p:301-317. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRES20 .

    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.