A Survey on Labor Market Institutions, Collective Bargaining and Macroeconomic Performance

Résumé du livre

The paper argues that the form in which collective bargaining is organized might be a decisive factor in determining the performance of modern industrialized economies. The whole literature on corporatism is concerned with showing that the degree of centralization and coordination in wage determination is a key factor in ensuring either a more or less painful adjustment to adverse economic conditions. In this sense, labor market institutions might assume one of two roles: (i) uncertainty reducers and catalysts of more flexible markets; or (ii) free-rider agents which would only be worried about appropriating product market quasi-rents. The first case seems to be more recurrent in corporatist countries where bargaining is centralized and coordinated. The second, more apparent where bargaining is decentralized and/or intermediate-centralized, is where rent-sharing seems pervasive and wage rigidity a strong possibility.