The Trade-Off between Wages and Employment in Trade Union Objectives / John H. Pencavel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pencavel, John H.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w0870.

NBER working paper series no. w0870

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Collective bargaining.

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1982.

Cambridge, Mass. : National Bureau of Economic Research, 1982.

Summary:

This paper demonstrates that, contrary to a widely-held opinion, the determination of the goals of unions is fully amenable to empirical analysis. A characterization of the wage and employment-setting process in unionized markets is adopted and its qualitative implications examined. The first-order condition for this model is fitted to time- series data on the newspaper industry from ten cities. The Inter- national Typographical Union 's objective function reveals very restricted opportunities for substituting wages for employment in response to a change in the slope of the employer's labor demand function. Larger union locals place greater emphasis on wages versus employment than smaller union locals.

Notes:

Print version record

March 1982.

Includes bibliographical references.