IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp15467.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Should We Think About Employers' Associations?

Author

Listed:
  • Bryson, Alex

    (University College London)

  • Willman, Paul

    (London School of Economics)

Abstract

We maintain that employer associations are a specific form of employer collusion that is overt, formal and labour market focused which encompasses but is by no means confined to collective bargaining. We consider the conditions under which this form of collusion might emerge, and how it might develop. Since the context is the decline of employers’ associations in collective bargaining, we look at how collective bargaining involvement (and its disappearance) might relate to the growth or decline of other forms of collusion in areas such as product and financial markets, and political influence. Our central contention is that employers’ associations continue to perform an important role in helping employers set the terms of trade, albeit one that has adapted to the demise of sectoral bargaining.

Suggested Citation

  • Bryson, Alex & Willman, Paul, 2022. "How Should We Think About Employers' Associations?," IZA Discussion Papers 15467, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15467
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp15467.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Orley Ashenfelter & David Card & Henry Farber & Michael R. Ransom, 2022. "Monopsony in the Labor Market: New Empirical Results and New Public Policies," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(S), pages 1-10.
    2. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Measuring and Explaining Management Practices Across Firms and Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1351-1408.
    3. Michela Giorcelli, 2021. "The origin and development of firm management," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 37(2), pages 259-275.
    4. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    5. John T. Addison & Alex Bryson & Paulino Teixeira & André Pahnke & Lutz Bellmann, 2013. "The Extent of Collective Bargaining and Workplace Representation: Transitions between States and their Determinants. A Comparative Analysis of Germany and Great Britain," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 60(2), pages 182-209, May.
    6. Alan B. Krueger & Orley Ashenfelter, 2022. "Theory and Evidence on Employer Collusion in the Franchise Sector," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(S), pages 324-348.
    7. Henry Mintzberg, 1978. "Patterns in Strategy Formation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(9), pages 934-948, May.
    8. Natarajan Balasubramanian & Jin Woo Chang & Mariko Sakakibara & Jagadeesh Sivadasan & Evan Starr, 2022. "Locked In? The Enforceability of Covenants Not to Compete and the Careers of High-Tech Workers," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(S), pages 349-396.
    9. David Marsden & Richard Belfield, 2010. "Institutions and the Management of Human Resources: Incentive Pay Systems in France and Great Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 48(2), pages 235-283, June.
    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. Thomas Amossé & Philippe Askenazy & Martin Chevalier & Christine Erhel & Héloïse Petit & Antoine Rebérioux, 2016. "Industrial Relations and Firms’ Reactions to the Recession: A Comparative Micro-Econometric Analysis of France and Great Britain [Relations sociales et ajustements à la crise : une analyse micro-st," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-02172455, HAL.
    2. Brian Callaci & Matthew Gibson & Sérgio Pinto & Marshall Steinbaum & Matt Walsh, 2024. "Grads on the Go: The Effect of Franchise No-Poaching Restrictions On Worker Earnings," Upjohn Working Papers 24-405, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    3. Thomas Amosse & Alex Bryson & John Forth & Heloise Petit, 2023. "The Micro-Foundations of Employment Systems: An Empirical Case Study of Britain and France," DoQSS Working Papers 23-04, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    4. Timothy Perri Perri, 2023. "The Death of Labor Market Competition Has Been Greatly Exaggerated," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 38(Summer 20), pages 39-54.
    5. Jaime Gómez & Raquel Orcos & Henk W. Volberda, 2021. "How imitation of multiple reference groups drives the evolution of firm strategy," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(8), pages 2319-2350, November.
    6. Gibson, Matthew, 2021. "Employer Market Power in Silicon Valley," IZA Discussion Papers 14843, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Nicholas Oulton & Ana Rincon-Aznar, 2009. "Rates of Return and Alternative Measures of Capital Input: 14 Countries and 10 Branches, 1971-2005," CEP Discussion Papers dp0957, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    8. Callaci, Brian & Gibson, Matthew & Pinto, Sergio & Steinbaum, Marshall & Walsh, Matt, 2023. "The Effect of Franchise No-Poaching Restrictions on Worker Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 16330, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Sila, Urban, 2009. "Can family-support policies help explain differences in working hours across countries?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28684, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Akin A. Cilekoglu, 2023. ""Labor Market Monopsony and Firm Behavior: Evidence from Spanish Exporters"," IREA Working Papers 202307, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Jul 2023.
    11. Akin A. Cilekoglu, 2023. "“Labor Market Monopsony and Firm Behavior: Evidence from Spanish Exporters”," AQR Working Papers 202304, University of Barcelona, Regional Quantitative Analysis Group, revised Jul 2023.
    12. Andrew Leigh, 2023. "How uncompetitive markets hurt workers," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 26(1), pages 1-21.
    13. Chang, Eric C. & Cheng, Joseph W. & Khorana, Ajay, 2000. "An examination of herd behavior in equity markets: An international perspective," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(10), pages 1651-1679, October.
    14. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2015. "Do Private Equity Owned Firms Have Better Management Practices?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 442-446, May.
    15. Xueyan Dong & Jingyu Gao & Sunny Li Sun & Kangtao Ye, 2021. "Doing extreme by doing good," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 291-315, March.
    16. CHEN, Helen S.Y., 2020. "Designing Sustainable Humanitarian Supply Chains," OSF Preprints m82ar, Center for Open Science.
    17. Ferdinand Thies & Sören Wallbach & Michael Wessel & Markus Besler & Alexander Benlian, 2022. "Initial coin offerings and the cryptocurrency hype - the moderating role of exogenous and endogenous signals," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(3), pages 1691-1705, September.
    18. Ruomeng Cui & Dennis J. Zhang & Achal Bassamboo, 2019. "Learning from Inventory Availability Information: Evidence from Field Experiments on Amazon," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(3), pages 1216-1235, March.
    19. Bonatti, Alessandro & Hörner, Johannes, 2017. "Learning to disagree in a game of experimentation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 234-269.
    20. Alex Hollingsworth & Krzysztof Karbownik & Melissa A. Thomasson & Anthony Wray, 2024. "The Gift of a Lifetime: The Hospital, Modern Medicine, and Mortality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(7), pages 2201-2238, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    employers’ associations; collective bargaining; collusion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General
    • J52 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Dispute Resolution: Strikes, Arbitration, and Mediation

    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:iza:izadps:dp15467. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.