Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T10:22:53.996Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Integration of Product Markets when Labour Markets are Unionized

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

Jan Rose Sørensen
Jan Rose Sørensen*
Affiliation:
University of Aarhus
Get access

Summary

This paper is a first attempt to analyse the consequences of establishing the internal market when taking account of labour market effects of product market integration. Our main focus is on market power, and we show that both labour unions and firms may lose market power when product markets become integrated. If this happens, it is likely that both workers and capitalists become better off. On the other hand, if the firms reestablish their market power through mergers or cooperation, capitalists gain, whereas workers lose. If neither firms nor unions lose market power, there are no effects of integration.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article est une première tentative d'analyser les conséquences de l'établissement d'un marché interne, lorsqu'on prend en compte les effets sur le marché du travail de l'intégration du marché du produit. L'essentiel de l'analyse touche au pouvoir de marché. On montre que a la fois les syndicats de travailleurs et les entreprises peuvent perdre leur pouvoir de marché lorsque les marchés du produit deviennent intégrés. Si c'est le cas, il est probable que à la fois les travailleurs et les capitalistes s'en trouvent mieux lotis. Par contre, si les entreprises restaurent leur pouvoir de marché via des fusions ou la coopération, les capitalistes y gagnent mais pas les travailleurs. Enfin, si ni les entreprises ni les syndicats ne perdent leur pouvoir de marché, l'intégration n'a pas d'impact.

Keywords

F15J51L19F15J51L19
Type
Research Article
Information
Recherches Économiques de Louvain/ Louvain Economic Review , Volume 59 , Issue 4 , 1993 , pp. 485 - 502
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 1993 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Henrik Jensen and two anonymous referees for useful comments. I am also gratefull for comments made by participants at a CIE seminar.

References

REFERENCES

Binmore, K., Rubinstein, A. and Wolinsky, A. [1986], The Nash Bargaining Solution in Economic Modelling, Rand Journal of Economics, 17, 176–88.Google Scholar
Brander, J..A. and Spencer, B..J. [1983] Strategic Commitment with R&D. The Symmetric Case, Bell Journal of Economics, 14, 225–35.Google Scholar
Brander, J..A. and Spencer, B..J. [1988], Unionized Oligopoly and International Trade Policy, Journal of International Economics, 24, 217–34.Google Scholar
Davidson, C. [1988], Multiunit Bargaining in Oligopolistic Industries, Journal of Labour Economics, 6, 397–422.Google Scholar
Dixit, A. [1979], A Model of Duopoly Suggesting a Theory of Entry Barriers, Bell Journal of Economics, 10, 20–32.Google Scholar
Dowrick, S. [1989], Union-Oligopoly Bargaining, Economic Journal, 99, 1123–42.Google Scholar
Jacquemin, A. and Sapir, A. [1988], International Trade and Integration of the European Community, European Economic Review, 32, 1439–49.Google Scholar
Mezzetti, C. and Dinopoulos, E. [1991], Domestic Unionization and Import Competition, Journal of International Economics, 31, 79–100.Google Scholar
Nickell, S..J. and Andrews, M. [1983], Unions, Real Wages and Employment in Britain 1951–79, Oxford Economic Papers, 35, Supplement, 183–206.Google Scholar
Oswald, A. J. [1982], The Microeconomic Theory of the Trade Union, Economic Journal, 92, 57-6-95.Google Scholar
Oswald, A.J. [1985], The Economic Theory of Trade Unions: An Introductory Survey, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 87, 160–93.Google Scholar
Roth, A.E. [1979], Axiomatic Models of Bargaining: Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, Number 170, Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Smith, A. and Venables, A.J. [1988], Completing the Internal Market in the European Community, European Economic Review, 32, 1501–25.Google Scholar
Sleuwaegen, L. and Yamawaki, H. [1988] The Formation of the European Common Market and Changes in Market Structure and Performance, European Economic Review, 32, 1451–75.Google Scholar
Stewart, G. [1989] Profit-sharing in Cournot Oligopoly, Economics Letters, 31, 221–24.Google Scholar
Sørensen, J.R. [1992], Profit-sharing in a Unionized Cournot Duopoly, Journal of Economics, 55, 151–67.Google Scholar
Vives, X. [1984], Duopoly Information Equilibrium: Cournot and Bertrand, Journal of Economic Theory, 34, 71–94.Google Scholar
Winters, L.A. [1987], Britain in Europe: A Survey of Quantitative Trade Studies, Journal of Common Market Studies, 25.Google Scholar
Winters, L.A. ([988], Completing the European Internal Market, European Economic Review, 32, 1477–99.Google Scholar