2023 Volume 30 Issue 2 Pages 97-102
Enterprise unions are often noted as a feature of Japanese-style management. Takahashi (2018) assumes a monopolistic wage determination model in which unions maximize their own utilities and discusses the strategic choice of a new firm’s union structure. The paper shows that the new firm chooses an enterprise union rather than an industry union, if the new firm’s labor productivity is slightly higher than that of the existing firm and if trade unions does not place importance on raising wages. In contrast, Hokari (2023) assumes that firms choose enterprise unions and considers a strategic wage determination model. The paper shows that firms choose the right to manage rather than unions’ monopolistic wage determination. Following the model setting of Hokari (2023), this paper shows that the social welfare becomes greater under the right to manage than under the unions’ monopolistic wage determination, unless the technological gap between technologically superior and inferior firms is extremely large.
