 R&D investment and import competition in unionized industriesApplied Economics Letters, 2001, vol. 8, issue 10, 669-674 Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of unionization on the flow of research and development (R&D) investment and import competition in US manufacturing industries. If the unions adopt a myopic strategy, they may attempt to maximize current rents, even if it reduces strategic R&D necessary to compete against imports. However, if unions are employment oriented and realize that R&D is essential to compete effectively against imports and reduce job losses for their members, they may favour a more co-operative strategy. This issue is empirically investigated at the industry level using data from 1975-1984. One of the main contributions of this study is the attempt to distinguish between strategic and non-strategic R&D. The results of this analysis indicate that depending on the extent of unionization, there is a significant amount of variation in the magnitude and direction of the impact of strategic R&D on import penetration. Supporting evidence also indicates that the union rent-seeking behaviour related to strategic R&D investments varies between import and export-competing industries. Date: 2001 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:8:y:2001:i:10:p:669-674 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/13504850110036733 Access Statistics for this article Applied Economics Letters is currently edited by Anita Phillips More articles in Applied Economics Letters from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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