This paper presents a microeconomic theoretical model of union optimizing behavior which is then used to test the relevance of the tax-push hypothesis for wage formation in nine Western European countries. Two factors—the compensation and the progressivity effects—are shown by the model to...

This paper presents a microeconomic theoretical model of union optimizing behavior which is then used to test the relevance of the tax-push hypothesis for wage formation in nine Western European countries. Two factors - the compensation and the progressivity effects - are shown by the model to...

Unemployment in Europe is a worrying phenomenon not so much because it hits 18 million people, but because it almost exclusively affects particular population segments. Italy represents a textbook case of a European country where labour market imbalances only weigh upon certain social...