Slip Sliding Away: Further Union Decline in Germany and Britain

36 Pages Posted: 22 Feb 2010

See all articles by John T. Addison

John T. Addison

University of South Carolina - Moore School of Business - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Alex Bryson

UCL ; National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)

Paulino Teixeira

Universidade de Coimbra - Faculdade de Economia; Center for European Economic Research (ZEW)

Andre Pahnke

Government of the Federal Republic of Germany - Institute for Employment Research (IAB)

Abstract

This paper presents the first comparative analysis of the decline in collective bargaining in two European countries where that decline has been most pronounced. Using workplace-level data and a common model, we present decompositions of changes in collective bargaining and worker representation in the private sector in Germany and Britain over the period 1998-2004. In both countries within-effects dominate compositional changes as the source of the recent decline in unionism. Overall, the decline in collective bargaining is more pronounced in Britain than in Germany, thus continuing a trend apparent since the 1980s. Although workplace characteristics differ markedly across the two countries, assuming counterfactual values of these characteristics makes little difference to unionization levels. Expressed differently, the German dummy looms large.

Keywords: behavioral and composition effects, patterns of erosion, worker representation, union coverage, union recognition, shift share analysis

JEL Classification: J50, J51

Suggested Citation

Addison, John T. and Bryson, Alex and Teixeira, Paulino and Pahnke, Andre, Slip Sliding Away: Further Union Decline in Germany and Britain. IZA Discussion Paper No. 4760, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1556548 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1556548

John T. Addison (Contact Author)

University of South Carolina - Moore School of Business - Department of Economics ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://mooreschool.sc.edu/moore/economics/profiles/addison.htm

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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Alex Bryson

UCL ( email )

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National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://www.niesr.ac.uk/staff/staffdetail.php?StaffID=307

Paulino Teixeira

Universidade de Coimbra - Faculdade de Economia ( email )

Av. Dias da Silva, 165
Coimbra, 3004-512
Portugal

Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1 D-68161 Mannheim
Germany

Andre Pahnke

Government of the Federal Republic of Germany - Institute for Employment Research (IAB) ( email )

Regensburger Str. 104
Nuremberg, 90478
Germany

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