Union Contracts and the Firm's Financial Structure

This paper examines the effects of union contracts on the firm’s capital structure. We consider one-stage and two-stage models, as well as wage and wage/employment contracts. We show that, for all Pareto efficient bargaining solutions, a higher debt reduces the expected tax bill, but increases the expected cost of labour contracts. This trade-off determines the optimal capital structure. We also show that a stronger union tends to increase the amount of equity used.