In this paper we apply standard cartel theory to identify the major institutional stabilizers of Germany's area tariff system of collective bargaining between a single industry union and the industry's employers association. Our cartel analysis allows us to demonstrate that recent labor policy...

This paper explores the anticompetitive effects that wage determination between an employers’ association and the industry’s labor union may have when wages are generally binding. It is shown that employers’ associations can, under certain circumstances, use generally binding standard...

This paper offers a cartel explanation for the stability of German collective bargaining institutions.We show that a dense net of legal safeguards has been yarned around the wage setting cartel. These measures make deviation by cartel insiders less attractive and simultaneously erect entry...

This paper explores the role that employers’ associations may play in centralized wage bargaining processes. It thereby adds to the literature on labor markets, in which the relationship between union behavior and unemployment has been explored quite extensively, while employers’...

This paper examines how different unionisation structures affect firms' innovation incentives and industry employment. We distinguish three modes of unionisation with increasing degree of centralisation: (1) 'decentralisation' where wages are determined independently at the firm-level, (2)...

Im September 2011 hat das Bundeskartellamt eine Sektoruntersuchung des Lebensmitteleinzelhandels nach §32 e GWB eingeleitet. Im Fokus der Untersuchung sollten "die Wettbewerbsbedingungen auf den Märkten für die Beschaffung von Nahrungs- und Genussmitteln durch die Unternehmen des...

We re-examine the view that a ban on price discrimination in input markets is particularly desirable in the presence of buyer power. This argument crucially depends on an inverse relationship between downstream firms’ profits and the uniform input price. Assuming different input efficiencies...