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Outsourcing of Unionized Firms and the Impact of Labor Market Policy Reforms

Author

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  • Koskela, Erkki

    (University of Helsinki)

  • Schöb, Ronnie

    (Free University of Berlin)

Abstract

This paper shows that outsourcing of parts of workforce in unionized firms leads to wage moderation both in the case of strategic and flexible outsourcing and as long as the share of the outsourced workforce is not too large, this wage-moderation effect on domestic employment outweighs the direct substitution effect so that domestic employment increases in unionized firms as outsourcing costs fall. With respect the impact of labor tax reforms that are well-established in the literature: changes in the wage tax rate, the tax exemption and the unemployment benefit payments affect domestic wage setting in the same way as in the absence of outsourcing. Furthermore, increasing the degree of tax progression by keeping the relative tax burden per worker constant continues to be good for employment. However, except for low outsourcing activities, the impact of these policy measures will become smaller as outsourcing costs fall.

Suggested Citation

  • Koskela, Erkki & Schöb, Ronnie, 2008. "Outsourcing of Unionized Firms and the Impact of Labor Market Policy Reforms," IZA Discussion Papers 3566, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3566
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Koskela, Erkki, 2010. "Analysis of Labor Tax Progression under Heterogeneous Domestic Labor Markets and Flexible Outsourcing," IZA Discussion Papers 5313, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Jan König & Erkki Koskela, 2013. "The Role of Profit Sharing in Dual Labour Markets with Flexible Outsourcing," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 27(4), pages 351-370, December.
    3. Stephanie Meinhard & Niklas Potrafke, 2012. "The Globalization–Welfare State Nexus Reconsidered," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 271-287, May.
    4. Koskela, Erkki, 2009. "Impacts of Labor Taxation with Perfectly and Imperfectly Competitive Domestic Labor Markets under Flexible Outsourcing," IZA Discussion Papers 4544, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Erkki Koskela & Ronnie Schöb, 2010. "Outsourcing of Unionized Firms and the Impact of Labor Market Policy Reforms," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 682-695, September.
    6. Jan König & Erkki Koskela, 2011. "Does International Outsourcing Really Lower Workers’ Income?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 21-38, March.
    7. Maiti, Dibyendu & Mukherjee, Arijit, 2013. "Trade cost reduction, subcontracting and unionised wage," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 103-110.
    8. Koskela, Erkki & Poutvaara, Panu, 2008. "Flexible Outsourcing and the Impacts of Labour Taxation in European Welfare States," IZA Discussion Papers 3699, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Beissinger, Thomas & Baudy, Philipp, 2015. "The Impact of Temporary Agency Work on Trade Union Wage Setting: A Theoretical Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 8802, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Aronsson, Thomas & Koskela, Erkki, 2008. "Optimal Redistributive Taxation and Provision of Public Input Goods in an Economy with Outsourcing and Unemployment," Umeå Economic Studies 759, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    11. Elisabetta Magnani, 2012. "Vertical disintegration and training: evidence from a matched employer–employee survey," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 199-217, October.
    12. Koskela, Erkki & Poutvaara, Panu, 2009. "Is There Scope for Gains from Revenue-Neutral Labor Tax Reforms with Flexible Outsourcing?," IZA Discussion Papers 3984, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Silvia Rocha-Akis, 2012. "The Pain and Gain of Offshoring: The Effects of Tax Progression in a Segmented Labour Market," CESifo Working Paper Series 3739, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    labor tax reform; outsourcing; union wage-setting; employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence

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