Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0 Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers Creation-Date: 2009-01-07 Number: 09-002/3 Author-Name: Hervé Boulhol Author-Workplace-Name: Université Paris-Panthéon Sorbonne Author-Name: Sabien Dobbelaere Author-Workplace-Name: VU University Amsterdam, Ghent University Author-Name: Sara Maioli Author-Workplace-Name: Newcastle University Business School Title: Imports as Product and Labour Market Discipline Abstract: This discussion paper resulted in a publication in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, 49(2), 331-361. 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2009.00760.x

This paper tests the pro-competitive effect of trade in the product and labour markets of UK manufacturing sectors between 1988 and 2003 using a two-stage estimation procedure. In the first stage, we use data on 9820 firms from twenty manufacturing sectors to simultaneously estimate mark-up and workers’ bargaining power parameters according to sector, firm size and period. We find a significant drop in both the mark-up and the workers’ bargaining power in the mid-nineties. In the second stage, we relate our parameters of interest to trade variables. Our results show that imports from developed countries have significantly contributed to the decrease in both mark-ups and workers’ bargaining power. Classification-JEL: C23, F16, J51, L13 Keywords: Workers’ bargaining power, mark-ups, pro-competitive effect File-Url: https://papers.tinbergen.nl/09002.pdf File-Format: application/pdf File-Size: 665987 bytes Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20090002