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Labor Market Efficiency, Wages and Employment when Search Frictions Interact with Intrafirm Bargaining

Author

Listed:
  • Cahuc, Pierre

    (Sciences Po, Paris)

  • Wasmer, Etienne

    (Sciences Po, Paris)

Abstract

In search of a macroeconomic theory of wage determination, the agnostic reader should be puzzled by the apparent contradiction between two influential theories. On one hand, in the standard search-matching theory with wage bargaining, hiring cost and constant returns of labor, the bargaining power of employees allows them to get rents and gives rise either to over-employment or to under-employment compared with the first-best. On the other hand, in Stole and Zwiebel’s theory of intrafirm bargaining with no hiring cost and decreasing returns of labor, the bargaining power of employees does not allow them to get rent and always gives rise to over-employment. In this paper, we try to reconcile the approaches. A simple matching model with large firms and diminishing marginal productivity of labor allows us to show that the two limit cases described above yield a mix of robust and non robust results: In the most general case, employees get rents and there is more frequently over-employment compared to the efficient allocation than in the standard search-matching model.

Suggested Citation

  • Cahuc, Pierre & Wasmer, Etienne, 2001. "Labor Market Efficiency, Wages and Employment when Search Frictions Interact with Intrafirm Bargaining," IZA Discussion Papers 304, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp304
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    Cited by:

    1. William Hawkins & Daron Acemoglu, 2007. "Equilibrium Unemployment in a Generalized Search Model," 2007 Meeting Papers 384, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    2. Christian Gianella & Sandrine Duchêne & Sébastien Doisy, 2004. "Un modèle d’appariement avec hétérogénéité du facteur travail : un nouvel outil d’évaluation des politiques économiques," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 162(1), pages 1-22.
    3. Beugnot, Julie & Tidball, Mabel, 2010. "Multiple equilibria model with intrafirm bargaining and matching frictions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 810-822, October.
    4. William Hawkins, 2015. "Bargaining with Commitment Between Workers and Large Firms," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(2), pages 350-364, April.
    5. Pascal Michaillat, 2023. "Modeling Migration-Induced Unemployment," Papers 2303.13319, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2024.
    6. Kurmann, André, 2014. "Holdups and overinvestment in capital markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 88-113.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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