IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/indrel/qt5w75g2d8.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Bargaining Regimes and Wage Dispersion

Author

Listed:
  • Barth, Erling
  • Zweimuller, Josef

Abstract

The paper studies the relationship between wage dispersion and centralization. We distinguish between two sources of wage differentials: Heterogenous -workers with different skills and firms with varying levels of economic rent per employee. The corresponding dimensions of centralization, i.e. coordination across skills or across firms and industries, are studied separately. The analysis shows that centralization may produce both lower and higher skills differentials, depending on the relative factor shares of the different types of workers. Inter-firm or -industry wage differentials among workers of identical productive characteristics, on the other hand, is always reduced with a higher degree of centralization. With a high- and a low-wage sector, the central union tends to gain from the shift in employment associated with a narrowing of the wage gap since more workers are employed in the high-wage sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Barth, Erling & Zweimuller, Josef, 1993. "Bargaining Regimes and Wage Dispersion," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt5w75g2d8, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:indrel:qt5w75g2d8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/5w75g2d8.pdf;origin=repeccitec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Horn, Henrik & Wolinsky, Asher, 1988. "Worker Substitutability and Patterns of Unionisation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 98(391), pages 484-497, June.
    2. Holden, Steinar & Raaum, Oddbjorn, 1991. "Wage Moderation and Union Structure," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 409-423, July.
    3. Hoel, Michael, 1989. "Efficiency wages and local versus central wage bargaining," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 175-179, August.
    4. McDonald, Ian M & Solow, Robert M, 1981. "Wage Bargaining and Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 896-908, December.
    5. A. D. Roy, 1951. "Some Thoughts On The Distribution Of Earnings," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 135-146.
    6. Barth, Erling & Zweimuller, Josef, 1992. "Labor Market Institutions and the Industry Wage Distribution: Evidence from Austria, Norway, and the U.S," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt1811h146, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    7. Michael Bruno & Jeffrey D. Sachs, 1985. "Economics of Worldwide Stagflation," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number brun85-1, March.
    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. Tito Boeri & Jan van Ours, 2013. "The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets: Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10142.
    2. repec:clr:wugarc:y:1993:v:19i:4p:423 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Philip Du Caju & François Rycx & Ilan Tojerow, 2011. "Inter‐Industry Wage Differentials: How Much Does Rent Sharing Matter?," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 79(4), pages 691-717, July.
    4. Pichler, Eva, 1991. "Union Wage Bargaining and Status," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 8, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    5. Sabien Dobbelaere & Jacques Mairesse, 2013. "Panel data estimates of the production function and product and labor market imperfections," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 1-46, January.
    6. Lindbeck, A & Snower, D-J, 1996. "Centralized Bargaining, Multi-Tasking, and Work Incentives," Papers 620, Stockholm - International Economic Studies.
    7. Du Caju, Philip & Rycx, François & Tojerow, Ilan, 2008. "Rent-Sharing and the Cyclicality of Wage Differentials," IZA Discussion Papers 3844, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Luigi Capoani & Cristoforo Imbesi & Francesca Rinaldi & Claudio Annibali, 2024. "Return migration, self-selection and labour market outcomes," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2024(2), pages 191-228.
    9. Bas, Maria & Carluccio, Juan, 2009. "Wage bargaining and the boundaries of the multinational firm," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28700, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Mulder, C B, 1993. "Wage-Moderating Effects of Corporatism: Decentralized versus Centralized Wage Setting in a Union, Firm, Government Context," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 61(3), pages 287-301, September.
    11. Garibaldi, Pietro & Wasmer, Etienne, 2003. "Equilibrium Employment in a Model of Imperfect Labor Markets," IZA Discussion Papers 950, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Kai-Uwe Kuuhn & A. Jorge Padilla, 2002. "Union Power, Replacement and Labour Market Dynamics," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(479), pages 317-343, April.
    13. Schettkat, Ronald, 2003. "Koordination von Lohnverhandlungen (Coordination of wage bargaining)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(4), pages 634-648.
    14. Möller, Joachim, 1988. "Identifying the causes of unemployment: Estimation and control of a small macroeconomic model," Discussion Papers, Series I 236, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.
    15. Carluccio, Juan & Bas, Maria, 2015. "The impact of worker bargaining power on the organization of global firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 162-181.
    16. Lorenzo Forni, 2004. "Centralization of wage bargaining and the unemployment rate: revisiting the hump-shape hypothesis," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 492, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    17. Karl Ove Moene & Michael Wallerstein, 1993. "The Economic Performance of Different Bargaining Institutions," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 19(4), pages 423-450.
    18. Luciano Fanti, 2011. "When do firms prefer either monopolistic unions or an efficient bargaining?," Discussion Papers 2011/130, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    19. Franz, Wolfgang, 1995. "Theoretische Ansätze zur Erklärung der Arbeitslosigkeit: Wo stehen wir 1995?," Discussion Papers 27, University of Konstanz, Center for International Labor Economics (CILE).
    20. Rama, Martin & Tabellim, Guido, 1998. "Lobbying by capital and labor over trade and labor market policies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(7), pages 1295-1316, July.
    21. Charles R. Bean, 1987. "Salaires, demande et chômage : une perspective internationale," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 38(3), pages 601-624.

    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:cdl:indrel:qt5w75g2d8. 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: Lisa Schiff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/irucbus.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.