The book attempts to examine whether trade unions in Japan contributed to raising wages, productivity and firm's performance. In the western world trade unions are often regarded as organizations which prevent firms from performing well. The Japanese case may be different from Europe and North America. The book investigates who in Japan joins trade unions and asks whether there is any difference in the satisfaction level of employees, the wage level, and labour turnover rates between union members and non-union members?

Autorentext

TOSHIAKI TACHIBANAKI is Professor of Economics at Kyoto University, Japan. He has also held several visiting and regular positions at INSEE, OECD, Stanford, Essex, London School of Economics and various government research institutions such as EPA, Bank of Japan, MOF, MITI. He is the author of Wage Determination and Distribution in Japan, Public Policies and the Japanese Economy, Wage Differentials: An International Comparison, and Capital and Labour in Japan. TOMOHIKO NODA is Lecturer in Economics at Momoyama Gakuin University, Osaka, Japan. He is the author of The Economics of the Trade Union (in Japanese) and Who Runs Japanese Business?

Inhalt

Preface Introduction Union and Social-Economic Background Attitudes of Non-Union Members Towards Unions Union Voice, and The Effect Satisfaction and Separation Motive The Effect of Unions on Wages The Effect of Unions and Employee Voice on Wages and Working Conditions: Their Endogeneity Problem The Effect of Voices on Working Conditions and Their Economic Interpretations Based on Enterprise Unionism The Effect of Union Voices and Productivity The Effect of Trade Unions on Labour Shares and Industrial Relations Concluding Remarks Index