Perspectives on Business Economics
Seminar 5: Wage Bargaining and trade unions
Please read the following academic paper: Brennan (2016)
What is the central hypothesis of this paper and what is its conceptual basis?
What do Figures 1 – 2 tell us about how corporate power has emerged during the past decades?
What do Figures 3 – 6 tell us about the product market and labour market power of large firms?
To what extent does the evidence presented in Figures 7 – 9 confirm or refute Galbraith’s ideas regarding “countervailing power”?
Present a simple theoretical explanation for why “countervailing power” of Trade unions may help increase wages in real terms (refer to bargaining theory).
What is meant by the term “distributional conflict” (p91) and why is this relevant today?
