Innovation, rent-sharing and the organization of labour in the federal republic of Germany

✍ Scribed by Felix R. FitzRoy; Kornelius Kraft

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 696 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-898X
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00389670

✦ Synopsis

Rent seeking by unions may inhibit various kinds of investment, particularly R&D, and unionization is orten negatively related to innovation across industries. Formal organization and collective bargaining may also reduce the flexibility of work organization, and hence inhibit innovation. In a sample of small-and medium-sized firms in the FRG metal-working industry, a measure of organized labour was negatively related to product innovation, but there was little evidence for rent-seeking in simultaneous estimates.