Search results for "Union density"
showing 2 items of 2 documents
Norm-Based Trade Union Membership: Evidence for Germany
2004
AbstractIn the absence of closed shops and discriminatory wage policies, union membership can be explained by the existence of social norms.We describe a model, incorporating institutional features of the German labour market, which explicitly allows for social custom effects in the determination of union membership. Using panel data for Germany, we find evidence for according effects which restrict freeriding. The impact of social norms tends to increase with net union density. Hence, observed reductions in the demand for union membership can weaken the impact of a norm and accentuate the free-rider problem.
Institutions, Incentives and Trade Union Membership
1997
The study investigates the determinants of unionization in a country — Finland — where union density, defined as the number of unionized members divided by the labour force, has risen 60 percentage points in 32 years, from 22 percent in 1960 to 82 percent in 1992. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the background information obtained from surveys inquiring why individuals join a union. The empirical analysis for the period 1962–92 shows that the model is capable of explaining long-run trends in union density in a very satisfactory manner. The results imply that institutional features of the labour market, characterized by the benefit mark-up variable and a dummy variable cap…