Machin, Stephen (1988) The impact of unions on economic performance : empirical tests using British micro-data. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

To date, most applied econometric work analysing the effects of British trade unions has concentrated on their effect on relative wages. However, a considerable body of U.S. evidence suggests that unions significantly influence other economic variables. This thesis attempts to explore some of these issues using British data and uses econometric techniques to consider the effects of unions on productivity, profitability and the relationship between unionism and schemes which link workers' pay to performance. As the tendency in recent years has been for collective bargaining to take place at the level of the plant or Arm in Britain the study prefers to use micro-economic data and several such data sources are accessed. The main finding is that trade unions certainly exert a significant influence on the behaviour of plants and firms in Britain in the early 1980's. Unions are found to reduce productivity in larger firms but have no impact in small firms in a sample of engineering firms. Using data on large British firms the union impact on profitability is observed to be negative but more marked in situations of market power so that unions effectively re-channel excess profits from capital to labour. The union impact on the financial performance of two large cross-sections of British establishments is also found to be negative and again more marked where these plants are able to exert some degree of product market power. Finally, union presence is positively related to the incidence of share ownership and profit sharing schemes unless strong unions are present when such schemes are no more likely to be present than in non-union workplaces. These results are of considerable interest and. despite the underlying macroeconomic and political climate, union activity is observed to have important economic effects in Britain in the early 1980's.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Labor economics -- Great Britain, Labor unions -- Economic aspects -- Great Britain, Labor productivity -- Econometric models, Industrial productivity -- Econometric models, Wages and labor productivity -- Great Britain
Official Date:	September 1988
Dates:	Date Event September 1988 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Economics
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Knight, Ben ; Stewart, Mark B. (Economist)
Sponsors:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain)
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	199 leaves : charts
Language:	eng

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