[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp707.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trade Union Membership in Eastern and Western Germany: Convergence or Divergence?

Author

Listed:
  • Schnabel, Claus

    (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)

  • Wagner, Joachim

    (Leuphana University Lüneburg)

Abstract
An empirical analysis of various waves of the ALLBUS social survey shows that the level and the structure of unionization has become more and more similar in eastern and western Germany in the period 1992 to 2000. The originally high level of union density in eastern Germany has dropped below that of western Germany, and union membership has been falling steadily in both parts of the country since 1992. Repeated cross-sectional analyses indicate that the factors influencing individuals’ probability of union membership have converged over time between western and eastern Germany. After an assimilation period of about ten years the same set of variables can be used to explain unionization in post-socialist eastern Germany and in traditionally capitalist western Germany.

Suggested Citation

  • Schnabel, Claus & Wagner, Joachim, 2003. "Trade Union Membership in Eastern and Western Germany: Convergence or Divergence?," IZA Discussion Papers 707, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp707
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp707.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bulkley, George & Myles, Gareth D., 2001. "Individually rational union membership," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 117-137, March.
    2. Naylor, Robin & Cripps, Martin, 1993. "An economic theory of the open shop trade union," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1599-1620, December.
    3. Jelle Visser, 2002. "Why Fewer Workers Join Unions in Europe: A Social Custom Explanation of Membership Trends," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 40(3), pages 403-430, September.
    4. Neumann, George R & Rissman, Ellen R, 1984. "Where Have All the Union Members Gone?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(2), pages 175-192, April.
    5. Kölling, Arnd & Schnabel, Claus & Wagner, Joachim, 2001. "Bremst das Schwerbehindertengesetz die Arbeitsplatzdynamik in Kleinbetrieben?," Discussion Papers 4, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    6. Naylor, Robin & Raaum, Oddbjorn, 1993. "The Open Shop Union, Wages, and Management Opposition," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 45(4), pages 589-604, October.
    7. Laszlo Goerke & Markus Pannenberg, 1998. "Social Custom, Free-Riders, and Trade Union Membership in Germany and Great Britain," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 177, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Booth, Alison L & Chatterji, Monojit, 1995. "Union Membership and Wage Bargaining When Membership is Not Compulsory," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(429), pages 345-360, March.
    9. Naylor, Robin, 1990. "A social custom model of collective action," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 201-216, October.
    10. John H. Pencavel, 1971. "The Demand for Union Services: An Exercise," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 24(2), pages 180-190, January.
    11. McKenna, C. & Jones, S.R.G., 1992. "Dynamic Models of Union Membership," Working Papers 1992-04, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    12. Jahn, Elke J. & Wagner, Thomas, 2000. "Substitution and crowding-out effects of active labour market policy," Discussion Papers 2, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    13. George A. Akerlof, 1980. "A Theory of Social Custom, of which Unemployment may be One Consequence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(4), pages 749-775.
    14. Addison, John T. & Bellmann, Lutz & Schnabel, Claus & Wagner, Joachim, 2002. "German works councils old and new: incidence, coverage and determinants," Discussion Papers 10, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    15. Booth, Alison L & Chatterji, Monojit, 1993. "Reputation, Membership and Wages in Open Shop Trade Union," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 45(1), pages 23-41, January.
    16. Nicola‐Maria Riley, 1997. "Determinants of Union Membership: A Review," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 11(2), pages 265-301, June.
    17. Ebbinghaus, Bernhard, 2002. "Dinosaurier der Dienstleistungsgesellschaft? Der Mitgliederschwund deutscher Gewerkschaften im historischen und internationalen Vergleich," MPIfG Working Paper 02/3, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    18. repec:bla:econom:v:61:y:1994:i:242:p:179-89 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Sarosh Kuruvilla & Daniel G. Gallagher & Jack Fiorito & Mitsuru Wakabayashi, 1990. "Union Participation in Japan: Do Western Theories Apply?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 43(4), pages 374-389, July.
    20. Monroe Berkowitz, 1954. "The Economics of Trade Union Organization and Administration," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 7(4), pages 575-592, July.
    21. Alison L. Booth, 1985. "The Free Rider Problem and a Social Custom Model of Trade Union Membership," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 100(1), pages 253-261.
    22. van den Berg, Annette & Groot, Wim, 1992. "Union Membership in the Netherlands: A Cross-Sectional Analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 537-564.
    23. John T. Addison & Claus Schnabel (ed.), 2003. "International Handbook of Trade Unions," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2705.
    24. Schnabel, Claus, 2002. "Determinants of trade union membership," Discussion Papers 15, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    25. Corneo, Giacomo, 1995. "Social custom, management opposition, and trade union membership," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 275-292, February.
    26. Wallerstein, Michael, 1989. "Union Organization in Advanced Industrial Democracies," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(2), pages 481-501, June.
    27. Jeremy Waddington & Colin Whitston, 1997. "Why Do People Join Unions in a Period of Membership Decline?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 515-546, December.
    28. Schnabel, Claus & Wagner, Joachim, 2003. "Determinants of Trade Union Membership in Western Germany: Evidence from Micro Data, 1980-2000," IZA Discussion Papers 708, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    29. Moreton, David R., 1998. "An open shop trade union model of wages, effort and membership," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 511-527, August.
    30. Gerlinde Sinn & Hans-Werner Sinn, 1994. "Jumpstart: The Economic Unification of Germany," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262691728, April.
    31. Carola M. Frege, 1996. "Union Membership in Post-Socialist East Germany: Who Participates in Collective Action?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 387-413, September.
    32. Wegener, Torsten, 2000. "Institutionelle Aspekte der Regionalisierung von Wirtschafts- und Strukturpolitik," Discussion Papers 3, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    33. Joseph R. Antos & Mark Chandler & Wesley Mellow, 1980. "Sex Differences in Union Membership," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 33(2), pages 162-169, January.
    34. Wagner, Joachim, 1990. "Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft und Arbeitseinkommen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Eine ökonometrische Analyse mit Individualdaten," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-155, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schnabel, Claus & Wagner, Joachim, 2003. "Determinants of Trade Union Membership in Western Germany: Evidence from Micro Data, 1980-2000," IZA Discussion Papers 708, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Schnabel, Claus, 2002. "Determinants of trade union membership," Discussion Papers 15, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    3. Schnabel, Claus & Wagner, Joachim, 2005. "Determinants of Union Membership in 18 EU Countries: Evidence from Micro Data, 2002/03," IZA Discussion Papers 1464, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Goerke Laszlo & Pannenberg Markus, 2004. "Norm-Based Trade Union Membership: Evidence for Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 5(4), pages 481-504, December.
    5. Laszlo Goerke & Markus Pannenberg, 2007. "Trade Union Membership and Works Councils in West Germany," Industrielle Beziehungen - Zeitschrift fuer Arbeit, Organisation und Management - The German Journal of Industrial Relations, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 14(2), pages 154-175.
    6. Bernd Fitzenberger & Karsten Kohn & Qingwei Wang, 2011. "The erosion of union membership in Germany: determinants, densities, decompositions," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(1), pages 141-165, January.
    7. Goerke, Laszlo, 1997. "Taxes in an open shop trade union model," Discussion Papers, Series II 346, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    8. Alex Bryson, 2006. "Union Free-Riding in Britain and New Zealand," CEP Discussion Papers dp0713, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    9. Schnabel, Claus, 2012. "Union Membership and Density: Some (Not So) Stylized Facts and Challenges," IZA Discussion Papers 6792, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Vaona, Andrea, 2006. "The duration of union membership: An empirical study," Kiel Working Papers 1268, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    11. Schnabel, Claus & Wagner, Joachim, 2005. "Who Are the Workers Who Never Joined a Union? Empirical Evidence from Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 1658, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Daniele Checchi, 2000. "Time series evidence on union densities in European countries," Departmental Working Papers 2000-10, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    13. Corneo, Giacomo G., 1997. "The theory of the open shop trade union reconsidered," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 71-84, March.
    14. Blanchflower, David G., 2006. "A Cross-Country Study of Union Membership," IZA Discussion Papers 2016, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Philippe Aghion & Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc, 2008. "Can Policy Interact with Culture? Minimum Wage and the Quality of Labor Relations," Working Papers hal-00972820, HAL.
    16. Claus Schnabel & Joachim Wagner, 2007. "The Persistent Decline in Unionization in Western and Eastern Germany, 1980-2004 - What Can We Learn from a Decomposition Analysis?," Industrielle Beziehungen - Zeitschrift fuer Arbeit, Organisation und Management - The German Journal of Industrial Relations, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 14(2), pages 118-132.
    17. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8882 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Nora Ilona Elek, 2016. "Selective Incentives And Trade Union Density," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 340-350, July.
    19. Philippe Aghion & Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc, 2011. "Civil Society And The State: The Interplay Between Cooperation And Minimum Wage Regulation," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 3-42, February.
    20. Aghion, Philippe & Algan, Yann & Cahuc, Pierre, 2008. "Can Policy Influence Culture? Minimum Wage and the Quality of Labor Relations," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 0801, CEPREMAP.
    21. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8882 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8882 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Flemming Ibsen & Laust Høgedahl & Steen Scheuer, 2013. "Free riders: the rise of alternative unionism in Denmark," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5-6), pages 444-461, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    trade union membership; Germany; micro data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp707. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.