Offshoring and Labor Market Power: Comparing Belgian and Dutch Firms

Sabien Dobbelaere, Catherine Fuss and Mark Vancauteren

Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 2026, vol. 65, issue 1, 80-99

Abstract: We study the relationship between offshoring and labor market imperfections at the firm level in Belgium and the Netherlands. In both countries, wage‐markup pricing stemming from workers' monopoly power is more prevalent than wage‐markdown pricing originating from firms' monopsony power. Offshoring is associated with a higher prevalence and intensity of wage markdowns, driven by an increase in productivity that is only imperfectly passed through into an increase in wages. The lower firm‐level productivity‐wage pass‐through in Belgium, attributed to its more centralized bargaining structure, makes wage markdowns more responsive to offshoring.

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/irel.12394

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:indres:v:65:y:2026:i:1:p:80-99

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0019-8676

Access Statistics for this article

Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society is currently edited by Christopher (Kitt) Carpenter, Steven Raphael and stevenraphael@berkeley.edu

More articles in Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().