Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp11518.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The One Constant: A Causal Effect of Collective Bargaining on Employment Growth?

Author

Listed:
  • Brändle, Tobias

    (Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW))

  • Goerke, Laszlo

    (IAAEU, University of Trier)

Abstract
A large number of articles have analysed 'the one constant' in the economic effects of trade unions, namely that collective bargaining reduces employment growth by two to four percentage points per year. Evidence is, however, mostly related to Anglo-Saxon countries. We investigate whether a different institutional setting might lead to a different outcome, making the constant a variable entity. Using linked-employer-employee data for Germany, we find a negative correlation between being covered by a sector-wide bargaining agreement or firm-level contract and employment growth of about one percentage point per annum. However, the correlation between employment growth and collective bargaining is not robust to the use of panel methods. We conclude that the results of the literature using cross-section data might be driven by selection.

Suggested Citation

  • Brändle, Tobias & Goerke, Laszlo, 2018. "The One Constant: A Causal Effect of Collective Bargaining on Employment Growth?," IZA Discussion Papers 11518, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11518
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp11518.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Addison, John T. & Teixeira, Paulino & Zwick, Thomas, 2006. "Works Councils and the Anatomy of Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 2474, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Machin, Stephen J & Wadhwani, Sushil, 1991. "The Effects of Unions on Organisational Change and Employment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(407), pages 835-854, July.
    3. Uwe Jirjahn, 2010. "Works councils and employment growth in German establishments," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 34(3), pages 475-500.
    4. Oberfichtner Michael & Schnabel Claus, 2019. "The German Model of Industrial Relations: (Where) Does It Still Exist?," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 239(1), pages 5-37, January.
    5. Jörg Heining & Wolfram Klosterhuber & Stefan Seth, 2014. "An Overview on the Linked Employer-Employee Data of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB)," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 134(1), pages 141-148.
    6. 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.
    7. McDonald, Ian M & Solow, Robert M, 1981. "Wage Bargaining and Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 896-908, December.
    8. John T. Addison & Alex Bryson & Paulino Teixeira & André Pahnke, 2011. "Slip Sliding Away: Further Union Decline In Germany And Britain," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 58(4), pages 490-518, September.
    9. Alex Bryson, 2004. "Unions And Employment Growth In British Workplaces During The 1990s: A Panel Analysis," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 51(4), pages 477-506, September.
    10. Aaron J. Sojourner & Brigham R. Frandsen & Robert J. Town & David C. Grabowski & Min M. Chen, 2015. "Impacts of Unionization on Quality and Productivity," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 68(4), pages 771-806, August.
    11. Alison L. Booth & Andrew McCulloch, 1999. "Redundancy Pay, Unions and Employment," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 67(3), pages 346-366, June.
    12. David G. Blanchflower & Simon M. Burgess, 1996. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in Great Britain in the 1980s," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 50(1), pages 17-38, October.
    13. Sven Jung & Claus Schnabel, 2011. "Paying More than Necessary? The Wage Cushion in Germany," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 25(2), pages 182-197, June.
    14. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    15. Bernd Fitzenberger & Karsten Kohn & Alexander C. Lembcke, 2013. "Union Density and Varieties of Coverage: The Anatomy of Union Wage Effects in Germany," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(1), pages 169-197, January.
    16. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger, 1992. "Gross Job Creation, Gross Job Destruction, and Employment Reallocation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 819-863.
    17. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    18. Tobias Brändle, 2017. "Flexible collective bargaining agreements: Still a moderating effect on works council behaviour?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(8), pages 1137-1153, December.
    19. John DiNardo & David S. Lee, 2004. "Economic Impacts of Unionization on Private Sector Employers: 1984-2001," NBER Working Papers 10598, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Robert Krol & Shirley Svorny, 2007. "Unions and Employment Growth: Evidence from State Economic Recoveries," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 525-535, July.
    21. Rafael Gralla & Kornelius Kraft, 2018. "Separating Introduction Effects from Selectivity Effects:Â The Differences in Employment Patterns of Codetermined Firms," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 32(1), pages 93-111, March.
    22. Ellguth, Peter & Kohaut, Susanne, 2015. "Tarifbindung und betriebliche Interessenvertretung: Ergebnisse aus dem IAB-Betriebspanel 2014," WSI-Mitteilungen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 68(4), pages 290-297.
    23. Mario Bossler & Gregor Geis & Jens Stegmaier, 2018. "Comparing survey data with an official administrative population: assessing sample-selectivity in the IAB Establishment Panel," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 899-920, March.
    24. N. Guertzgen, 2010. "Rent-sharing and collective wage contracts-evidence from German establishment-level data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(22), pages 2835-2854.
    25. John Addison & Stanley Siebert & Joachim Wagner & Xiangdong Wei, 2000. "Worker Participation and Firm Performance: Evidence from Germany and Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 38(1), pages 7-48, March.
    26. repec:bla:manchs:v:67:y:1999:i:3:p:346-66 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Claudio Lucifora & Daria Vigani, 2021. "Losing Control? Unions’ Representativeness, Pirate Collective Agreements, and Wages," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 188-218, April.
    2. Bernardo Fanfani, 2019. "The Employment Effects of Collective Bargaining," Working papers 064, Department of Economics, Social Studies, Applied Mathematics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino.
    3. Bernd Brandl, 2023. "Everything we do know (and don’t know) about collective bargaining: The Zeitgeist in the academic and political debate on the role and effects of collective bargaining," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(3), pages 660-678, August.
    4. John T. Addison, 2016. "Collective bargaining systems and macroeconomic and microeconomic flexibility: the quest for appropriate institutional forms in advanced economies," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-53, December.
    5. Andrea Garnero & François Rycx & Isabelle Terraz, 2020. "Productivity and Wage Effects of Firm‐Level Collective Agreements: Evidence from Belgian Linked Panel Data," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(4), pages 936-972, December.
    6. Kraft, Kornelius & Lammers, Alexander, 2021. "The Effects of Reforming a Federal Employment Agency on Labor Demand," IZA Discussion Papers 14629, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Addison, John T. & Teixeira, Paulino & Grunau, Philipp & Bellmann, Lutz, 2019. "Dissonant Works Councils and Establishment Survivability," IZA Discussion Papers 12438, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Panu Poutvaara & Till Nikolka & Daniel Leithold & Katrin Oesingmann & Daniela Wech, 2017. "Comparative study about the powers and the representativeness of employee representatives in French and German enterprises," ifo Forschungsberichte, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 84.
    9. Mohrenweiser, Jens, 2022. "Works Councils," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1103, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

    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. Tobias Brändle & Laszlo Goerke, 2018. "The one constant: a causal effect of collective bargaining on employment growth? Evidence from German linked‐employer‐employee data," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 65(5), pages 445-478, November.
    2. Brändle, Tobias, 2024. "Unions and Collective Bargaining: The Influence on Wages, Employment and Firm Survival," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1457, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Alex Bryson, 2004. "Unions And Employment Growth In British Workplaces During The 1990s: A Panel Analysis," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 51(4), pages 477-506, September.
    4. 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.
    5. Brändle Tobias & Heinbach Wolf Dieter, 2013. "Opening Clauses in Collective Bargaining Agreements: More Flexibility to Save Jobs?," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 64(2), pages 159-192, August.
    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. Steffen Mueller & Georg Neuschaeffer, 2021. "Worker Participation in Decision‐making, Worker Sorting, and Firm Performance," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 436-478, October.
    8. Kraft, Kornelius & Lammers, Alexander, 2021. "The Effects of Reforming a Federal Employment Agency on Labor Demand," IZA Discussion Papers 14629, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Barth, Erling & Bryson, Alex & Dale-Olsen, Harald, 2017. "Union Density, Productivity and Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 11111, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Mohrenweiser, Jens, 2022. "Works Councils," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1103, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. John T. Addison, 2016. "Collective bargaining systems and macroeconomic and microeconomic flexibility: the quest for appropriate institutional forms in advanced economies," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-53, December.
    12. Karen Mumford & Peter N. Smith, 2004. "Job Reallocation, Employment Change And Average Job Tenure: Theory And Workplace Evidence From Australia," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 51(3), pages 402-421, August.
    13. Alexander Lammers & Felix Lukowski & Kathrin Weis, 2023. "The relationship between works councils and firms’ further training provision in times of technological change," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(2), pages 392-424, June.
    14. Arnd Kölling & Claus Schnabel, 2022. "Owners, external managers and industrial relations in German establishments," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 424-443, June.
    15. 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.
    16. Kraft, Kornelius & Lammers, Alexander, 2021. "Bargaining Power and the Labor Share - a Structural Break Approach," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242342, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Florian Baumann & Tobias Brändle, 2017. "We Want Them All Covered! Collective Bargaining and Firm Heterogeneity: Theory and Evidence from Germany," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 55(3), pages 463-499, September.
    18. Boris Hirsch & Philipp Lentge & Claus Schnabel, 2022. "Uncovered workers in plants covered by collective bargaining: Who are they and how do they fare?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(4), pages 929-945, December.
    19. Fackler, Daniel & Schnabel, Claus & Stegmaier, Jens, 2024. "Personnel adjustments during the Covid-19 pandemic: did co-determination make a difference?," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 58, pages 1-4.
    20. John T. Addison, 2016. "Collective bargaining systems and macroeconomic and microeconomic flexibility: the quest for appropriate institutional forms in advanced economies," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-53, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    job flows; employment growth; collective bargaining; trade unions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J52 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Dispute Resolution: Strikes, Arbitration, and Mediation
    • J53 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Labor-Management Relations; Industrial Jurisprudence
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs

    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:dp11518. 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.