How Trade Unions Increase Welfare

Alejandro Donado and Klaus Wälde

No 2010027, LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES from Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)

Abstract: Historically, worker movements have played a crucial role in making workplaces safer. Firms traditionally oppose better health standards. According to our interpretation, workplace safety is costly for .firms but increases average health of workers and thereby aggregate labour supply. A laissez-faire approach in which firms set safety standards is suboptimal as workers are not fully informed of health risks associated with jobs. Safety standards set by better-informed trade unions are output and welfare increasing.

Keywords: occupational health and safety; trade unions; welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J51 J81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24
Date: 2010-08-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec and nep-lab
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http://sites.uclouvain.be/econ/DP/IRES/2010027.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: How trade unions increase welfare (2012)
Working Paper: How Trade Unions Increase Welfare (2011)
Working Paper: How Trade Unions Increase Welfare (2010)
Working Paper: How trade unions increase welfare (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctl:louvir:2010027

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