The answer to the question in the title of course depends on how we define economic performance. In an overlapping generations model we show that trade unions do worsen economic performance in the sense that we get uemployment, but it is quite likely that trade unions give rise to a higher...

This article focuses on the role of unionized members of the parliament. Referring to the famous study by Freeman and Medoff (1984) and considering the more recent literature we first review unions' political power at the example of the US. We conclude that trade unions have not been very...