How Trade Unions Increase Welfare

Alejandro Donado and Klaus Wälde

No 1010, Working Papers from Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Abstract: Historically, worker movements have played a crucial role in making workplaces safer. Firms traditionally oppose better health standards. According to our in- terpretation, 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: 26 pages
Date: 2010-08-19, Revised 2010-08-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cmp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://download.uni-mainz.de/RePEc/pdf/Discussion_Paper_1010.pdf First version, 2010 (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)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jgu:wpaper:1010

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