Union bargaining power, subcontracting and innovation

We show that if a firm can subcontract production to an informal sector, an increase in union power may either increase or decrease innovation. An increase in union power makes the firm worse off irrespective of its effect on innovation. However, in contrast to the usual belief, an increase in union...

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Main Authors: Beladi, Hamid, Mukherjee, Arijit
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40707/
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author Beladi, Hamid
Mukherjee, Arijit
author_facet Beladi, Hamid
Mukherjee, Arijit
author_sort Beladi, Hamid
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description We show that if a firm can subcontract production to an informal sector, an increase in union power may either increase or decrease innovation. An increase in union power makes the firm worse off irrespective of its effect on innovation. However, in contrast to the usual belief, an increase in union power may increase consumer surplus and decrease union utility by affecting innovation, thus suggesting that a union may not want to be too powerful. An increase in union power may create an ambiguous effect on social welfare. Our analysis provides new insights to the relation between union power and innovation.
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spelling nottingham-407072020-05-04T18:33:59Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40707/ Union bargaining power, subcontracting and innovation Beladi, Hamid Mukherjee, Arijit We show that if a firm can subcontract production to an informal sector, an increase in union power may either increase or decrease innovation. An increase in union power makes the firm worse off irrespective of its effect on innovation. However, in contrast to the usual belief, an increase in union power may increase consumer surplus and decrease union utility by affecting innovation, thus suggesting that a union may not want to be too powerful. An increase in union power may create an ambiguous effect on social welfare. Our analysis provides new insights to the relation between union power and innovation. Elsevier 2017-02-21 Article PeerReviewed Beladi, Hamid and Mukherjee, Arijit (2017) Union bargaining power, subcontracting and innovation. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 137 . pp. 90-104. ISSN 0167-2681 Consumer surplus; Innovation; Union; Subcontracting http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016726811730046X doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2017.02.013 doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2017.02.013
spellingShingle Consumer surplus; Innovation; Union; Subcontracting
Beladi, Hamid
Mukherjee, Arijit
Union bargaining power, subcontracting and innovation
title Union bargaining power, subcontracting and innovation
title_full Union bargaining power, subcontracting and innovation
title_fullStr Union bargaining power, subcontracting and innovation
title_full_unstemmed Union bargaining power, subcontracting and innovation
title_short Union bargaining power, subcontracting and innovation
title_sort union bargaining power, subcontracting and innovation
topic Consumer surplus; Innovation; Union; Subcontracting
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40707/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40707/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40707/