In this paper, we assess the impact of international trade on union bargaining power in five EU countries, using a two-step estimation procedure. In the first step, we use firm-level data to estimate union bargaining power at sector level within a production function framework. We simultaneously...

In this paper we propose an explanation for the substantial migration inflows that occurred in North-Western Europe in the 1960s using a modified Heckscher-Ohlin model to show how migration inflows and the product specialisation pattern were linked to the skill premium of countries. In the...

This paper extends the assessment of the impact of globalisation and technological change on the bargaining power and preferences of employees, by taking worker heterogeneity into account. In contrast with previous studies, two separate unions – representing low-skilled and high-skilled...

Feenstra and Hanson [NBER Working Paper No. 6052 (1997)] propose a procedure to correct the standard errors in a two-stage regression with generated dependent variables. Their method has subsequently been used in two-stage mandated wage models [Feenstra and Hanson, "Quarterly Journal of...

While rising health care expenditures as a percentage of national income is a well-known and widely documented feature across the industrialized world, it has proved difficult to quantify the effects of the underlying cost drivers. The main difficulty is to find suitable proxies to measure...

We examine whether or not affiliate production in Central and Eastern Europe (CEEC) affects factor demand in the EU, at the investing firm and sector levels. Using firm level data, we estimate parent labor demand elasticities for a number of manufacturing sectors, following a flexible cost...

This paper analyses to what extent the decision to start exporting may be subject to spillovers of the internationalisation behaviour of other (foreign and domestic) firms. We distinguish between two possible channels: effects on productivity and effects on the perceived level of sunk costs of...

In this paper a semiparametric stochastic metafrontier approach is used to obtain insight into firm-level competitiveness in Europe. We differ from standard TFP studies at the firm level as we simultaneously allow for inefficiency, noise and do not impose a functional form on the input-output...