Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/20681 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1385
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
In this paper we analyse the contribution of union activity to reducing earnings inequality. Given the specific nature of the system of industrial relations, Italian unions may contribute to inequality reduction through either national bargaining (i.e. reducing between-sector differentials) and/or local bargaining (i.e. reducing within-establishment inequality). After reviewing aggregate evidence on the first dimension, we explore the second route making use of matched employer-employees data-set, surveyed in 1995 by Eurostat. We pay great care to the potential endogeneity of local bargaining, and we find that the widespread adoption of local bargaining, by reducing the implicit price of individual characteristics, effectively contributes to inequality reduction.
Subjects: 
unions
wage inequality
JEL: 
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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