Trade unions and Corporate Social Responsibility

Arbeitspapier

Trade unions distort a profit-maximising firm's input choice. The nature of the resulting inefficiency depends on whether there are wage negotiations or there is efficient bargaining. Moreover, trade unions redistribute income and thereby affect welfare. If firms also pursue Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objectives, input choices may be distorted already in the absence of collective bargaining. Adopting a positive perspective, we show that CSR objectives, which induce a firm to expand production, have ambiguous wage and employment consequences in case of wage negotiations and raise employment if there is efficient bargaining. Importantly from a normative vantage point, such CSR objectives make a welfare-enhancing role of trade unions more likely in the presence of wage negotiations. The reverse is true in case of efficient bargaining.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IAAEU Discussion Paper Series in Economics ; No. 06/2020

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Welfare Economics: General ; Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects ; Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship ; Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
• Subject: Corporate Social Responsibility ; Efficient Bargaining ; Trade Unions ; Wage Bargaining ; Welfare

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Goerke, Laszlo
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Trier, Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU)
• (where): Trier
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/226183
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET