Should Trade Unions Welcome Foreign Investors? First evidence from Danish Matched Employer-Employee Data

Abstract

While foreign direct investment (FDI) is widely believed to have an adverse effect on the bargaining power of unions and hence on union wages, little empirical research has been done to substantiate this conjecture. The present paper aims at filling this gap by analysing the effect of foreign ownership on the union wage premium in Denmark. Using matched employer-employee data, the positive effect of plant level unionisation on wages is found to vanish in foreignowned firm.