DP3748 Regulation with Wage Bargaining

Author(s):	Dag Morten Dalen, Espen R Moen, Nils-Henrik M Von der Fehr
Publication Date:	February 2003
Keyword(s):	regulation, wage bargaining
JEL(s):	J30, L51
Programme Areas:	Industrial Organization
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=3748

In many regulated industries labour unions are strong and there is clear empirical evidence of labour rent-sharing. In this Paper, we study optimal regulation in a model in which wages are determined endogenously by wage bargaining at the firm level. A seemingly robust conclusion, at least when worker bargaining power is considerable, is that incentives for cost efficiency should be stronger than in the standard case in which wages do not depend on the regulatory regime.