Financialization, Technological Change, and Trade Union Decline

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Technological Change ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Equity Market ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Wage Bargaining ◽  
Market Development ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Biased Technological Change ◽  
Negative Effect

Abstract Recent research finds that financialization and technological change have had a variety of negative effects on labor, including reducing low-skill workers’ wages and increasing income inequality. In this article, I examine the effect on trade unions of one type of financialization, equity market development and one type of technological change, routine-biased technological change. I argue that we should conceptualize trade union strength in two dimensions: (a) the strength of their institutional structures, such as the degree of wage bargaining coordination and the degree to which firms can deviate from collective agreements; (b) the strength of their membership. Using data for 21 OECD countries from 1970 to 2010, I find a negative effect of equity market development on unions’ institutional structures, but not on union membership. Contrarily, I find that routine-biased technological change has a negative effect on union density, but an inconsistent relationship with the strength of unions’ institutional structures.

scholarly journals Mechanisms of Environmental Regulation’s Impact on Green Technological Progress—Evidence from China’s Manufacturing Sector

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1600
Author(s):  
Weijiang Liu ◽  
Mingze Du ◽  
Yuxin Bai
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Biased Technological Change ◽  
Chinese Manufacturing Industry

As the world’s largest developing country, and as the home to many of the world’s factories, China plays a crucial role in the sustainable development of the world economy regarding environmental protection, energy conservation, and emission reduction issues. Based on the data from 2003–2015, this paper examined the green total factor productivity and the technological progress in the Chinese manufacturing industry. A slack-based measure (SBM) Malmquist productivity index was used to measure the bias of technological change (BTC), input-biased technological change (IBTC), and output-biased technological change (OBTC) by decomposing the technological progress. It also investigated the mechanism of environmental regulation, property right structure, enterprise-scale, energy consumption structure, and other factors on China’s technological progress bias. The empirical results showed the following: (1) there was a bias of technological progress in the Chinese manufacturing industry during the research period; (2) although China’s manufacturing industry’s output tended to become greener, it was still characterized by a preference for overall CO2 output; and (3) the impact of environmental regulations on the Chinese manufacturing industry’s technological progress had a significant threshold effect. The flexible control of environmental regulatory strength will benefit the Chinese manufacturing industry’s technological development. (4) R&D investment, export delivery value, and structure of energy consumption significantly contributed to promoting technological progress. This study provides further insight into the sustainable development of China’s manufacturing sector to promote green-biased technological progress and to achieve the dual goal of environmental protection and healthy economic growth.

scholarly journals Migration and Wage Effects of Taxing Top Earners: Evidence from the Foreigners’ Tax Scheme in Denmark *

2013 ◽  
Vol 129 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Jacobsen Kleven ◽  
Camille Landais ◽  
Emmanuel Saez ◽  
Esben Schultz
Keyword(s):  
Wage Bargaining ◽  
Income Taxation ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Flat Rate ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
New Immigrants ◽  
Wage Effects ◽  
Matching Frictions ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Individual

Abstract This article analyzes the effects of income taxation on the international migration and earnings of top earners using a Danish preferential foreigner tax scheme and population-wide Danish administrative data. This scheme, introduced in 1991, allows new immigrants with high earnings to be taxed at a preferential flat rate for a duration of three years. We obtain two main results. First, the scheme has doubled the number of highly paid foreigners in Denmark relative to slightly less paid—and therefore ineligible—foreigners. This translates into a very large elasticity of migration with respect to 1 minus the average tax rate on foreigners, between 1.5 and 2. Second, we find compelling evidence of a negative effect of the scheme-induced reduction in the average tax rate on pretax earnings of foreign migrants at the individual level. This finding can be rationalized by a matching frictions model with wage bargaining where there is a gap between pay and marginal productivity.

scholarly journals Skill-Biased Technological Change and Inequality in the U.S.

2020 ◽  
pp. 91-107
Author(s):  
Ana Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
Incomplete Markets ◽  
Gini Coefficient ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Overlapping Generations ◽  
Overlapping Generations Model ◽  
Biased Technological Change ◽  
Household Heterogeneity ◽  
The U.S

Since the 1980s, income inequality has increased markedly and has reached the highest level ever since it started being recorded in the U.S. This paper uses an overlapping generations model with incomplete markets that allows for household heterogeneity that is calibrated to match the U.S. economy with the purpose to study how skill-biased technological change (SBTC) and changes in taxation quantitatively account for the increase in inequality from 1980 to 2010. We find that SBTC and taxation decrease account for 48% of the total increase in the income Gini coefficient. In particular, we conclude that SBTC alone accounted for 42% of the overall increase in income inequality, while changes in the progressivity of the income tax schedule alone accounted for 5.7%.

scholarly journals Determinants of the Adoption of Integrated Reports: An International Investigation

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Md. Jahidur Rahman ◽  
Pan Li ◽  
Rashedul Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Investor Protection ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Business Environments ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Sample Data ◽  
Reporting Decisions ◽  
Low Levels

This study examines the determinants of companies’ reporting decisions. We employ three measures at the country-level: (1) investor protection, (2) trade union density, and (3) economic development. Regression model analysis was used to measure whether companies used integrated reports (IR) or traditional sustainable reports. Using sample data from Fortune Global 300 for the year 2017, which is the latest available data, this paper follows logistic regression models. The study finds out that the probabilities of publication of IR are high in countries with high trade union density, weak investor protection, and low levels of economic development. These results help companies and managers to better cope with current business environments.

Een halve eeuw vakbondslidmaatschap : Een verkennende longitudinale studie naar enkele cyclische determinanten voor de ledenontwikkeling van de Belgische vakbonden, 1946-1995

Res Publica ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-32
Author(s):  
Kurt Vandaele
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Econometric Model ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Free Riding ◽  
Structural Variable ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
The Impact

This article explains the ebb and flow in Belgian trade union membership from 1946 to 1995 by replicating the econometric model by Bain and Elsheikhn in which changes in macro-economic variables are highly significant. Since the automatic indexation of wages and the extension of collective labour agreements invite free riding, the relevance of the change in inflation and real wage is quite striking. However, the free riding-effect is slowed down by the institutionalised presence of the trade unions on the work floor. The Ghent system explains the positive impact of the unemployment rate . The model is furthermore improved by the trade union density as a structural variable. The linear form reflects the enforcement effect, while the quadratic form mirrors the saturation effect on the trade union membership. Mainly due to the 'Allgemeinkoalitionsfähighkeit' of the Belgian government system, the impact of left parties on union growth and decline is not significant in a quantitative framework. With only four explanatory variables the model clarifies more than 75% of the fluctuations in Belgian trade union membership.

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