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Full-Text Articles in Business
Esop Fables: The Impact Of Employee Stock Ownership Plans On Labor Disputes, Peter Cramton, Hamid Mehran, Joseph Tracy
Esop Fables: The Impact Of Employee Stock Ownership Plans On Labor Disputes, Peter Cramton, Hamid Mehran, Joseph Tracy
Peter Cramton
By the early 1990s employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) had become as prevalent in unionized firms as in nonunionized firms. However, little research has been devoted to examining the implications of ESOPs for collective bargaining, or cross ownership more generally. In this paper, we extend the signaling model of Cramton and Tracy (1992) to allow partial ownership by the union. We demonstrate that ESOPs create incentives for unions to become weaker bargainers. As a result, the model predicts that ESOPs will lead to a reduction in strike incidence and in the fraction of labor disputes that involve a strike. We …
Unions, Bargaining And Strikes, Peter Cramton, Joseph Tracy
Unions, Bargaining And Strikes, Peter Cramton, Joseph Tracy
Peter Cramton
Labor disputes are an intriguing feature of the landscape of industrialized economies. Economists have had a long-standing interest in formulating a framework for understanding and analyzing labor disputes. The development of noncooperative bargaining theory provided the tools for a theory of collective bargaining and labor disputes. A general aim of this theoretical development is to inform policy makers of the efficiency and equity effects associated with different labor laws and institutions that govern and shape the collective bargaining process. While this new literature is still evolving, it can already offer many insights into the interplay between policy and the bargaining …
Impacts Of Strike Replacement Banks In Canada, Peter Cramton, Morley Gunderson, Joseph Tracy
Impacts Of Strike Replacement Banks In Canada, Peter Cramton, Morley Gunderson, Joseph Tracy
Peter Cramton
In the labor relations area no issue generates as much controversy and division between labor and management as does the legislative ban on replacement workers. In the United States, the issue of a ban on permanent replacement workers has come before Congress four times since 1988, although the only action taken has been an executive order in 1995, banning the government from doing business with firms that use permanent replacements (Cramton and Tracy 1998). In Canada, where labor matters are under provincial jurisdiction, legislative bans on permanent replacement workers exist in most jurisdictions (except New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince …
The Effect Of Collective Bargaining Legislation On Strikes And Wages, Peter Cramton, Morley Gunderson, Joseph Tracy
The Effect Of Collective Bargaining Legislation On Strikes And Wages, Peter Cramton, Morley Gunderson, Joseph Tracy
Peter Cramton
Using Canadian data on large, private-sector contract negotiations from January 1967 to March 1993, we find that wages and strikes are substantially influenced by labor policy. The data indicate that conciliation policies have largely been ineffective in reducing strike costs. In contrast, contract reopener provisions appear to make both unions and firms better off by reducing negotiation costs without systematically affecting wage settlements. Legislation banning the use of replacement workers appears to lead to higher strike costs both by increasing the frequency and duration of strikes.
The Use Of Replacement Workers In Union Contract Negotiations: The U.S. Experience, 1980-1989, Peter Cramton, Joseph Tracy
The Use Of Replacement Workers In Union Contract Negotiations: The U.S. Experience, 1980-1989, Peter Cramton, Joseph Tracy
Peter Cramton
It is argued in many circles that a structural change occurred in U.S. collective bargaining in the 1980s. Strike incidence declined, dispute incidence increased, and the composition of disputes shifted away from strikes and toward holdouts. We investigate the extent to which the hiring of replacement workers can account for these changes. For a sample of over 300 major strikes since 1980, we estimate the likelihood of replacements being hired. We find that the risk of replacement is lower for bargaining units with more experienced workers, and declines during tight labor markets. The composition of disputes shifts away from strikes …
Wage Bargaining With Time-Varying Threats, Peter Cramton, Joseph Tracy
Wage Bargaining With Time-Varying Threats, Peter Cramton, Joseph Tracy
Peter Cramton
We study wage bargaining in which the union is uncertain about the firm's willingness to pay and threat payoffs vary over time. Strike payoffs change over time as replacement workers are hired, as strikers find temporary jobs, and as inventories or strike funds run out. We find that bargaining outcomes are substantially altered if threat payoffs vary. If dispute costs increase in the long-run, then dispute durations are longer, settlement rates are lower, and wages decline more slowly during the short-run (and may even increase). The settlement wage is largely determined from the long-run threat, rather than the short-run threat.
The Determinants Of U.S. Labor Disputes, Peter Cramton, Joseph Tracy
The Determinants Of U.S. Labor Disputes, Peter Cramton, Joseph Tracy
Peter Cramton
We present a bargaining model of union contract negotiations, in which the union decides between two threats: the union can strike or continue to work under the expired contract. The model makes predictions about the level of dispute activity and the form the disputes take. Strike incidence increases as the strike threat becomes more attractive, because of low unemployment or a real wage drop during the prior contract. We test these predictions by estimating logistic models of dispute incidence and dispute composition for U.S. labor contract negotiations from 1970 to 1989. We find empirical support for the model's key predictions, …
Strikes And Holdouts In Wage Bargaining: Theory And Data, Peter Cramton, Joseph Tracy
Strikes And Holdouts In Wage Bargaining: Theory And Data, Peter Cramton, Joseph Tracy
Peter Cramton
We develop a private-information model of union contract negotiations in which disputes signal a firm’s willingness to pay. Previous models have assumed that all labor disputes take the form of a strike. Yet a prominent feature of U.S. collective bargaining is the holdout: negotiations often continue without a strike after the contract has expired. Production continues with workers paid according to the expired contract. We analyze the union’s decision to strike or hold out and highlight its importance to strike activity. Strikes are more likely to occur after a drop in the real wage or a decline in unemployment.
Strategic Delay In Bargaining With Two-Sided Uncertainty, Peter Cramton
Strategic Delay In Bargaining With Two-Sided Uncertainty, Peter Cramton
Peter Cramton
The role of strategic delay is analyzed in an infinite-horizon alternating-offer model of bargaining. A buyer and seller are engaged in the trade of a single object. Both bargainers have private information about their own preferences and are impatient in that delaying agreement is costly. An equilibrium is constructed in which the bargainers signal the strength of their bargaining positions by delaying prior to making an offer. A bargainer expecting large gains from trade is more impatient than one expecting small gains, and hence makes concessions earlier on. Trade occurs whenever gains from trade exist, but due to the private …
Cartel Enforcement With Uncertainty About Costs, Peter Cramton, Thomas R. Palfrey
Cartel Enforcement With Uncertainty About Costs, Peter Cramton, Thomas R. Palfrey
Peter Cramton
What cartel agreements are possible when firms have private information about production costs? For private cost uncertainty we characterize the set of cartel agreements that can be supported, recognizing incentive and participation constraints. If defection results in either Cournot or Bertrand competition, the incentive problem in large cartels is severe enough to prevent the cartel from achieving the monopoly outcome. However, if the cartel agreement requires less than unanimous ratification by the member firms, then the incentive problem can be overcome in large cartels. With common cost uncertainty, perfect collusion is possible in large cartels, regardless of the ratification rule.