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We critically review the recent literature on currency unions, and discuss the methodological challenges posed by the empirical assessment of their costs and benefits. In the process, we provide evidence on the economic effects of the euro. In particular, and in contrast with estimates of the trade effect of other currency unions, we find that the impact of the euro on trade has been close to z...

Trade unions seek to tackle developments in the economic and social context of employment, as well as addressing changing membership priorities. Recent debate about union organisation and operation, particularly at a local level, has centred on an examination of the ways in which unions have been challenged by developments in the composition of managerial hierarchies and approaches, work and em...

This paper aims at challenging conventional theory according to which the abandonment of Keynesianism by social democratic governments entailed a ‘divorce’ between once very close parties and trade unions. During the 1980s and 1990s, Social Democratic parties endorsed the new economic consensus grounded on restrictive monetary policies. Nonetheless, a collaborative relationship between social d...

In practice, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) vastly outnumber Customs Unions (CUs). Nevertheless, the literature traditionally views CUs as optimal for members because CU members coordinate external tariffs. I show that a dynamic FTA flexibility benefit can help explain the prevalence of FTAs: individual FTA members have the flexibility to form their own future FTAs whereas CU members must jointly...

Trade unions throughout the advanced capitalist societies face significant challenges in the current period. One central challenge is associated with the persistence and growth of temporary work, ie the varied forms of non-permanent waged work such as fixed-term contracts, seasonal employment, casual employment, employment with temporary agencies and certain types of government employment and t...

a r t i c l e i n f o The number of preferential trade agreements has greatly increased over the past two decades, yet most existing arrangements take the form of free trade areas, and less than 10% can be considered to be fully fledged customs unions. This paper develops a political economy model of trade policy under imperfect competition to provide a positive explanation for the prevalence o...

The political and economic circumstances in the transition countries changed substantially after the turning point in the 1990s. To date the transformation process is far from being completed. This also applies to the trade unions. Their tasks and possibilities in relation to interest protection have changed fundamentally after the collapse of the socialist economic order. Trade unions today ha...

Using an economic geography model, we analyze the impact of an increase in trade unions’ bargaining strength on firms’ location decision. We show that an increase in workers’ bargaining power entails two effects. On the one hand, the standard labor cost effect induces firms to relocate their production abroad. On the other hand, trade unions, by stealing profits from foreign capitalists, create...