Wage bargaining as an optimal control problem: a dynamic version of the efficient bargaining model

In this paper, I develop a dynamic version of the efficient bargaining model grounded on optimal control in which a firm and a union bargain over the wage in a continuous-time environment under the supervision of an infinitely lived mediator. Overturning the findings achieved by means of a companion right-to-manage framework, I demonstrate that when employment is assumed to adjust itself with some attrition in the direction of the contract curve implied by the preferences of the two bargainers, increases in the bargaining power of the firm (union) accelerate (delay) the speed of convergence towards the stationary solution. In addition, confirming the reversal of the results obtained when employment moves over time towards the firm’s labour demand, I show that the dynamic negotiation of wages tends to penalize unionized workers and favour the firm with respect to the bargaining outcomes retrieved with a similar static wage-setting model.

Wage versus efficient bargaining in a Cournot duopoly: A Preliminary Note on Welfare

Wage versus efficient bargaining in a Cournot duopoly: A preliminary note on welfare In a unionized Cournot duopoly with decentralized, firm-level bargaining, this note re-examines the endogenous equilibrium agendas wage vs. efficient bargaining that can arise under three different specifications of the timing of negotiations and the impact of the outcome of the bargaining process on social welfare. Given that explicit conflict of interest among the bargaining parties can arise in every timing specification, this note proposes, analyzes, and discusses some guiding principles for governments and public authorities interested in pursuing social welfare improvements.

Profits Under Centralized Negotiations: The Efficient Bargaining Case

Making use of a Conjectural Variation model, the present note re-examines the subject of the firms’ profits ranking under different degrees of market competition in a unionized duopoly with industry-wide Efficient Bargaining (EB). It is shown that, while Cournot-like competition profits are always larger than Bertrand-like ones with separated wage negotiations, an uniform wage bargaining can lead to the appearance of the reversal.

A GAME-THEORETIC APPROACH TO THE CHOICE OF UNION-OLIGOPOLY BARGAINING AGENDA

<p align="center"><strong>ABSTRACT</strong><strong></strong></p><p>This paper investigates the selection of the bargaining agenda in a unionized industry with decentralized negotiations for different competition modes. The firms choose the agenda (right-to-manage, RTM, <em>versus</em> efficient bargaining, EB), considering alternative timing of the bargaining game in the case of mixed duopoly. In fact, the EB (RTM) firm can be either Stackelberg wage follower (leader) or Stackelberg output leader (follower). A two-stage game is developed in which the typology as well as the timing of the negotiations is endogenous. It is shown that, in pure strategies, no equilibria arise for a wide set of the parameters’ space while RTM appears as the unique equilibrium agenda for a different combination of the parameters; moreover, multiple, asymmetric equilibria emerge in a limited area of the parameters’ space. These results are in sharp contrast to the received literature in which EB can arise as an industry bargaining institution in equilibrium.</p><p align="center"> </p><p align="center">UN ENFOQUE DE TEORÍA DE JUEGOS PARA LA SELECCIÓN DE LA AGENDA DE NEGOCIACIÓN DEL OLIGOPOLIO SINDICAL</p><p align="center"><strong> </strong><strong>RESUMEN</strong></p>Este artículo investiga la selección de la agenda de negociación en una industria sindicalizada con negociaciones descentralizadas para diferentes modos de competencia. Las empresas eligen la agenda (negociación con derecho de administrar, NDA, frente a negociación eficiente, NE) considerando casos alternativos de la sucesión de eventos en el juego de negociación con duopolio mixto. De hecho, la empresa NE (NDA) puede ser seguidora de salarios Stackelberg (líder) o líder de cantidades Stackelberg (seguidora). Se desarrolla un juego de dos etapas en el que la tipología y el momento de las negociaciones son endógenos. Se muestra que en estrategias puras no surgen equilibrios para un amplio conjunto del espacio de los parámetros, mientras que NDA aparece como la agenda de equilibrio única para una combinación diferente de los parámetros; además, los equilibrios múltiples y asimétricos emergen en un área limitada del espacio de los parámetros. Estos resultados contrastan con la literatura existente, en la que NE puede surgir como una institución de negociación de la industria en equilibrio.

THE BUSINESS CYCLE WITH NOMINAL CONTRACTS AND SEARCH FRICTIONS

Macroeconomic models of the economy with rigid wage structures tend to predict unrealistically volatile labor hours and countercyclical productivity. This study extends the Cho–Cooley model by incorporating labor market frictions and efficient bargaining as an alternative contracting scheme in which contracts are forward-looking and specify labor hours and wage rates. By accounting for search frictions and realistic contractual schemes, the extended model overcomes two counterfactual predictions: (1) excess volatility of employment and output and (2) countercyclical productivity. However, the extended model fails to produce the Beveridge curve.