Employees' Desire to Join or Leave a Union: Evidence from Poland

This research note provides an empirical analysis of the factors related to Polish employees' desire to join and leave a union. Our regression analysis, based on a sample of 298 unionized and 338 nonunionized employees, shows that the desire to join a union is positively associated with career prospects and negatively with company commitment, while the desire to leave a union is positively associated with one's intention to leave the company.     

Benchmarks in Search Markets

We characterize the role of benchmarks in price transparency of over‐the‐counter markets. A benchmark can raise social surplus by increasing the volume of beneficial trade, facilitating more efficient matching between dealers and customers, and reducing search costs. Although the market transparency promoted by benchmarks reduces dealers' profit margins, dealers may nonetheless introduce a benchmark to encourage greater market participation by investors. Low‐cost dealers may also introduce a benchmark to increase their market share relative to high‐cost dealers. We construct a revelation mechanism that maximizes welfare subject to search frictions, and show conditions under which it coincides with announcing the benchmark.     

A Report on the Polish Labor Market: An Insider‐Outsider System

In the last decade, Poland has seen a dramatic increase in unemployment. Even though, mainly due to mass emigration, it has fallen, of late, the joblessness rate is still highest in the EU. It is pointed out that the strictness of employment protection legislation and high nonwage labor costs are behind this disappointing performance. The present article argues, in light of the insider‐outsider theory that, due to the power of Poland's trade unions, a two‐tier system has emerged, favoring employees on open‐ended contracts and discriminating against job seekers. Unions, as classic insiders, thwart attempts to ease stringent fire‐and‐hire regulations to modify early‐retirement schemes and to reform the public sector, which risks affecting the country's socioeconomic development.