Wage Bargaining and Monopsony

Abstract

This paper identifies three possible outcomes of higher relative firm bargaining power in a unionized firm facing an upward sloping labor supply curve. The conventional regime with reduced wage and higher employment corresponds to firm bargaining power below a certain critical value. A supply constrained regime where increased firm bargaining power reduces both wages and employment occurs when the bargaining power is above another critical level. A novel result is that we identify a third regime, with firm bargaining power between these critical levels, where changes in relative bargaining power does not affect wages and employment.