THE UNION RESPONSE TO THE POLL TAX

Abstract

The poll tax (community charge) recently imposed and subsequently abolished.in the United Kingdom, has proved controversial. This paper examines how a rational trade union would respond to the imposition of a poll tax and then to its replacement by a local income tax. The authors find simple sufficient conditions for the wage rate to rise in response to the imposition of a poll tax. Similar, but not identical, conditions imply that the wage will fall in response to the replacement of the poll tax by a local income tax. Copyright 1992 by Scottish Economic Society.