Losing Control? Unions’ Representativeness, Pirate Collective Agreements, and Wages

This paper documents the evolution of sector-level collective agreements in Italy and investigates wage differentials associated with diffusion non-representative agreements, often signed by unknown organizations—that is, so-called pirate agreements. Using employer–employee data from Social Security Archives, we find that are significant penalties (up to −8 percent) compared regular Wage heterogeneous across firm size industry affiliation. It is also shown half differential due selection effects. Finally, provide suggestive evidence firms’ coping strategies, showing exhibit comparatively higher employment levels.