Green transition and industrial relations at workplace: Evidence from Italian firms

Abstract

This paper analyses the role of green investments in employment relations. We verify whether the amounts of these investments affect the adoption of decentralised bargaining (firm-level and territorial agreements), and single aspects negotiated therein. Using new data on a large representative sample of Italian firms, we find that investing in green technologies increases the overall probability of decentralized agreements. Further, green investments lead to an increase in negotiations on performance-related pay, and welfare benefits. These results are robust to an econometric strategy that controls for firm-level observed and unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity issues. Our is the first micro evidence supporting the hypothesis that the ongoing ecological transformation of productive processes leads to significant changes in industrial labour relations.