Labour-EnglandPub Date : 2026-08-10Epub Date: 2026-07-09DOI: 10.1111/labr.70020
Laszlo Goerke, Markus M. Grabka, Viola Hilbert, Yue Huang
{"title":"Industrial Relations and Working From Home in Germany During the COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"Laszlo Goerke, Markus M. Grabka, Viola Hilbert, Yue Huang","doi":"10.1111/labr.70020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.70020","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We investigate the role of industrial relations for working from home during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for the years 2020 to 2023 and a special COVID sample (SOEP-CoV) for 2020 and 2021, we examine how collective bargaining and plant-level co-determination are associated with the incidence and frequency of working from home. Controlling for worker, firm, occupation, and industry characteristics, we find that employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement are less likely to work from home and do so less frequently than uncovered employees. In contrast, the incidence and frequency of working from home are positively associated with the presence of a works council.</p>","PeriodicalId":45843,"journal":{"name":"Labour-England","volume":"40 3","pages":"321-342"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/labr.70020","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour-EnglandPub Date : 2026-08-10Epub Date: 2026-06-30DOI: 10.1111/labr.70019
Vincenzo Sessa
{"title":"The Spatial Impact of Judicial Administration on Firms' Performance","authors":"Vincenzo Sessa","doi":"10.1111/labr.70019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.70019","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper investigates the indirect effects of judicial adminstration (JA) on neighbouring firms operating in southern Italian regions characterised by endemic organised crime. When a mafia-affiliated firm is placed under JA, the sector-specific relational networks it sustained are abruptly severed. Using difference-in-differences estimators, we find negative spillovers on other firms operating within a 10-km radius of the sanctioned enterprise: average cumulative effects of <span></span><math>\u0000 <semantics>\u0000 <mrow>\u0000 <mo>−</mo>\u0000 <mn>2.27</mn>\u0000 <mo>%</mo>\u0000 </mrow>\u0000 </semantics></math> on revenues, <span></span><math>\u0000 <semantics>\u0000 <mrow>\u0000 <mo>−</mo>\u0000 <mn>2.08</mn>\u0000 <mo>%</mo>\u0000 </mrow>\u0000 </semantics></math> on employment, and <span></span><math>\u0000 <semantics>\u0000 <mrow>\u0000 <mo>−</mo>\u0000 <mn>4.98</mn>\u0000 <mo>%</mo>\u0000 </mrow>\u0000 </semantics></math> on value added. Effects intensify with sectoral proximity and attenuate with physical distance, consistent with the disruption of territorially embedded mafia networks.</p>","PeriodicalId":45843,"journal":{"name":"Labour-England","volume":"40 3","pages":"263-290"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/labr.70019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour-EnglandPub Date : 2026-08-10Epub Date: 2026-07-03DOI: 10.1111/labr.70021
Mauro Caselli, Andrea Locatelli, Stefano Schiavo
{"title":"Labor Market Imperfections and Reforms: Evidence From Italy","authors":"Mauro Caselli, Andrea Locatelli, Stefano Schiavo","doi":"10.1111/labr.70021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.70021","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper investigates the impact of two major labor market reforms enacted in Italy during the 2010s, namely the 2012 Fornero reform and the 2015 Jobs Act, on labor market imperfections. Building on recent methodological advances in the estimation of markups and markdowns, we estimate firm-level measures of the labor wedge, defined as the ratio between the marginal revenue product of labor and its unit cost. Exploiting the institutional setup of the reforms, which affected firms above or below a 15-employee threshold differently, we adopt a difference-in-differences framework to assess whether the reduction in employment protection legislation altered the degree of labor market imperfections. The results show that the reforms favored firms over their employees, in line with a simple theoretical framework predicting an increase in the distance between labor compensation and productivity following a reduction in employment protection legislation. The effect is found to be stronger vis-à-vis white-collar workers compared to blue-collar workers.</p><p><b>JEL Classification:</b> D22, J31, J38, J42, L19</p>","PeriodicalId":45843,"journal":{"name":"Labour-England","volume":"40 3","pages":"310-320"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/labr.70021","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour-EnglandPub Date : 2026-08-10Epub Date: 2026-07-03DOI: 10.1111/labr.70024
Matteo Caruso
{"title":"Environmental Regulations and Skill Demand: Evidence From the U.S. Fuel Economy Standards","authors":"Matteo Caruso","doi":"10.1111/labr.70024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.70024","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This paper examines how environmental regulation reshapes the demand for skills not only between but also <i>within</i> broad categories of workers. The 2010 tightening of the U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards induced technological innovation in the automotive industry, centred on more efficient internal combustion engines and hybrid powertrains. Using a synthetic control method, I estimate the effect of this regulation-induced innovation on occupation-level wages in the motor vehicle parts industry. The wage effects are strongly heterogeneous within broad skill categories: industrial engineers experience losses of almost 10% while mechanical engineers—their closest occupational counterpart—are unaffected; first-line supervisors, whose coordination expertise is bound to the legacy production process, lose around 6%, while general managers and assembly workers are insulated. The results are robust to alternative specifications and inference methods; worker-level evidence from more than 1.3 million IPUMS observations confirms that wages shifted toward occupations whose skills align with the new technology. This pattern is explained by comparative advantage in the specific skills the new technology rewards—not by education, broad task categories, or the general level of skill. Being highly skilled offers no protection when those skills are tied to the superseded technology: the largest loss of all falls on industrial engineers, among the most skilled occupations in the industry. As environmental regulation pushes for new technologies, labour-market adjustment will depend less on how skilled workers are than on whether their skills align with it.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":45843,"journal":{"name":"Labour-England","volume":"40 3","pages":"343-385"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour-EnglandPub Date : 2026-08-10Epub Date: 2026-06-30DOI: 10.1111/labr.70026
Lorenzo Cappellari, Daniela Vuri
{"title":"The 40th Anniversary of the Italian Association of Labour Economics","authors":"Lorenzo Cappellari, Daniela Vuri","doi":"10.1111/labr.70026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.70026","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45843,"journal":{"name":"Labour-England","volume":"40 3","pages":"213-215"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour-EnglandPub Date : 2026-08-10Epub Date: 2026-07-08DOI: 10.1111/labr.70025
Vincenzo Scoppa, Idola Francesca Spanò
{"title":"Do Women Ask for Less? Evidence From Reservation Wages in Italy","authors":"Vincenzo Scoppa, Idola Francesca Spanò","doi":"10.1111/labr.70025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.70025","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Gender gaps in labor market outcomes have traditionally been attributed to differences in individual productivity or to discrimination. More recently, however, several studies have documented the role of gender differences in psychological attitudes. To shed light on this issue, rather than using data on realized wages, we rely on data on reservation wages—the lowest wage workers are willing to accept—for a sample of Italian graduates. Reservation wages tend to reflect individual attitudes and beliefs more directly, while being less affected by employer discrimination. Using a descriptive approach, we first examine the association between reservation wages and educational background, academic performance, individual characteristics, and family background, and investigate how they depend on job seekers' labor market expectations. We then analyze how reservation wages depend on preferences over specific job attributes, such as part-time arrangements, permanent positions, geographical mobility, commuting time, etc. Applying the Gelbach decomposition to quantify the contribution of each group of factors, we find a substantial role for preferences for job attributes and labor market expectations. However, our estimates reveal a large unexplained component which—in line with recent studies—is likely driven by gender differences in psychological and social attitudes, such as risk aversion, overconfidence, and adherence to social norms.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":45843,"journal":{"name":"Labour-England","volume":"40 3","pages":"216-237"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour-EnglandPub Date : 2026-08-10Epub Date: 2026-06-30DOI: 10.1111/labr.70022
Harald Dale-Olsen, Elin Svarstad
{"title":"Strike, Wage Bargaining and the Cost of Conflict","authors":"Harald Dale-Olsen, Elin Svarstad","doi":"10.1111/labr.70022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.70022","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The right to strike is protected under both EU and Norwegian law, reflecting the principle that participation in collective action should not have long-term consequences for workers' careers. Following a major strike in 2016, the Norwegian hotel and restaurant sector introduced rights to local wage bargaining, which had previously been negotiated only at the central level. Using Norwegian administrative linked employer–employee data for 2015–2019, we compare outcomes for hotel and restaurant workers with those in retail trade, where wages remained centrally determined. We find that, among workplaces covered by collective agreements, hotel and restaurant workers experienced little change in average wages but increased wage compression at the top. However, the striking workers themselves faced lower hourly wages, weaker labour market attachment, and a higher likelihood of receiving welfare benefits. These findings suggest that, for participants, the strike entailed lasting economic costs beyond those incurred during the dispute itself.</p>","PeriodicalId":45843,"journal":{"name":"Labour-England","volume":"40 3","pages":"238-262"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/labr.70022","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Labour-EnglandPub Date : 2026-08-10Epub Date: 2026-07-03DOI: 10.1111/labr.70023
Giuseppe Grasso, Konstantinos Tatsiramos
{"title":"Demand for Skills and Wage Inequality","authors":"Giuseppe Grasso, Konstantinos Tatsiramos","doi":"10.1111/labr.70023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.70023","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>We study the relationship between skill demand and wage inequality, and its association with worker and firm heterogeneity, across province-by-sector-by-occupation labor market cells. Combining Italian linked employer–employee data with aggregate skill requirements from online vacancies, we find a strong positive relationship between wages and demand for cognitive and social skills, especially when jointly required, highlighting their complementarity. When both skills are demanded more, higher wages are driven by AKM worker effects—reflecting the higher market value of a hybrid skill set—rather than firm pay, whereas higher specialized skill demand is associated with larger firm premiums but lower market-level valuations.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":45843,"journal":{"name":"Labour-England","volume":"40 3","pages":"291-309"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699923","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}