Introduction: International experiences of multilevel collective bargaining and lessons for implementation

There is renewed interest around the world in the potential of multilevel collective bargaining to contribute to a more inclusive and sustainable model of economic development. Recent country experiences nevertheless highlight tensions and contradictions in the roll‐out of new collective bargaining systems and suggest knowledge gaps regarding the idiosyncrasies of institutional design. This Special Issue provides a critical appraisal of the empirical evidence to date, guided by industrial relations institutional theory, and identifies lessons for policy and practice in the building and sustaining of effective multilevel bargaining systems.