Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35641 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4091
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper examines an economy with a large number of industries, each producing a different good. Technological change follows a Poisson process where firms improve their productivity through investment in R&D. The less there are firms in the economy or the more they can coordinate their actions, the higher their profits. Labor is used in production or R&D. All workers are unionized and their wages depend on relative union bargaining power. If this power is high enough, then there is involuntary unemployment. Both workers and firms lobby the central planner of the economy which affects firms' and unions' market power. The main findings of the paper can be summarized the follows. The central planner can increase its welfare either (a) by increasing the level of income or (b) by speeding up economic growth. If (a) is more effective than (b), then the central planner eliminates union power altogether to have full employment. On the other hand, if (b) is more effective than (a), then the central planner supports labor unions to promote cost-escaping R&D.
Subjects: 
Economic integration
labor unions
market power
endogenous technological change
JEL: 
F15
J50
O40
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
196.88 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.