The crisis in trade unionism is now a prevailing concern in the United States, as well as in Europe. Its main symptom is, of course, the decrease in union membership. Still, other, less observable elements account for the concern, namely the obsolescence of discourse, the decrease of militant motivation, and the question of efficiency of strikes or collective bargaining. One must keep in mind, however, that trade unions will evolve differently from one country to another. What we know about trade unions has changed over the years. We can now more accurately assess the effects of union action, especially with regard to labor market, wages, and productivity. This book adds to the assessment by integrating the new theories of organizations, contracts, and property rights. In doing so, we shift from a study of markets to one of hierarchies. Thus, the current literature comes back to its sources (but with improved analytical instruments) by returning to the Ross-Dunlop debate on the nature of the trade union. This more complex outlook of trade unions as an organization-not only as an abstract or bodyless supplier of monopolistic labor-allows one to understand better the apparent differences between unions (mainly American) whose action is oriented towards work relation­ ships and labor contract management and unions (European or "Latin") who are closer to a pressure group wielding power on the political front.

Inhalt

1 Changes over Time in the Union-Nonunion Wage Differential in the United States.- 2 Strike Cost and Wages Rates: Cross-Industry Differences.- 3 Cyclical Strike Activity and Mature Collective Bargaining: Evidence from Canadian Data: 1960-1976.- 4 The Relative Wage Effect of French Unions.- 5 Trade Unions and Restrictive Practices.- 6 The Economic Analysis of the Trade Union as a Political Institution.- 7 Toward a Theory of the Union Firm.- 8 The Agency Problem in a Nonproprietary Theory of Union Behavior.- 9 The Empirical Performance of a Model of Trade Union Behavior.- 10 The Determinants of Union Staff Salaries: A New Meaning to Business Unionism.- 11 Unions: Economic Performance and Labor Market Structure.- 12 Union Membership and Union Management: A Research Agenda for the '80s.- Contributing Authors.