| Insider-outsider theories have been advanced to explain a range of phenomena, principally the persistence of unemployment. This paper uses data from the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey 1995, and regional labour force survey data, to test this model. The paper also examines how the extent of product market competition faced by a firm influences the ability of insiders to ignore outsiders in wage setting. The paper finds provisional support for the insider-outsider distinction, and for the idea that insider power is enhanced when product market competition is weak. |
