Industrial relations and skill formation at the workplace: new insights from mixed methods

Abstract

In this paper, we study whether and how firm-level unionism and collective agreements affect workplace training. Theory provides inconclusive predictions on the various channels and processes through which firm-level industrial relations may affect workplace training. Quantitative and qualitative analyses, when used in isolation, have also proved insufficient for an adequate account of the various factors at play. In the spirit of opening the ‘black box’ of firm-level unionism and collective bargaining, we combine quantitative and qualitative strategies. Our results suggest that workplace unionism, and especially decentralized collective agreements, favor workplace training in subtler and often more dynamic ways than commonly understood.