CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE STATE: THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN COOPERATION AND MINIMUM WAGE REGULATION

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Aghion, Philippe; Algan, Yann; Cahuc, Pierre
• 署名单位: Harvard University; Institut Polytechnique de Paris; Ecole Polytechnique
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1542-4766
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1542-4774.2010.01004.x
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 3-42
• 关键词: social custom; UNION; INFORMATION; TECHNOLOGY; incentives; NORMS; MODEL

摘要

In a cross-section of countries, state regulation of labor markets is negatively correlated with the quality of labor relations. In this paper, we argue that these facts reflect different ways of regulating labor markets, either through the state or through the civil society, depending on the degree of cooperation in the economy. We rationalize these facts with a model of learning of the quality of labor relations. Distrustful labor relations lead to low unionization and high demand for direct state regulation of wages. In turn, state regulation crowds out the possibility for workers to experiment negotiation and learn about the potential cooperative nature of labor relations. This crowding out effect can give rise to multiple equilibria: a good equilibrium characterized by cooperative labor relations and high union density, leading to low state regulation; and a bad equilibrium, characterized by distrustful labor relations, low union density, and strong state regulation of the minimum wage.