TY - UNPB

T1 - Determinants of trade union membership in Western Germany

T2 - evidence from micro data, 1980 - 2000

AU - Schnabel, Claus

AU - Wagner, Joachim

PY - 2003

Y1 - 2003

N2 - An empirical analysis of various waves of the ALLBUS social survey shows that union density fell substantially in West Germany from 1980 to 2000. Such a negative trend can be observed for men and women and for different groups of the workforce. Repeated cross-sectional analyses suggest that a number of personal, occupational and attitudinal variables such as sex, occupational status, firm size and political orientation play a role in the unionization process, although the influence of many variables is not robust over time. While the results are consistent with cost-benefit considerations on the sides of employees and unions, individualization theory and social custom theory is not consistently supported by our estimations.

AB - An empirical analysis of various waves of the ALLBUS social survey shows that union density fell substantially in West Germany from 1980 to 2000. Such a negative trend can be observed for men and women and for different groups of the workforce. Repeated cross-sectional analyses suggest that a number of personal, occupational and attitudinal variables such as sex, occupational status, firm size and political orientation play a role in the unionization process, although the influence of many variables is not robust over time. While the results are consistent with cost-benefit considerations on the sides of employees and unions, individualization theory and social custom theory is not consistently supported by our estimations.

KW - Economics

KW - Deutschland

KW - Gewerkschaft

KW - Empirische Wirtschaftsforschung

M3 - Working papers

T3 - Arbeitsbericht

BT - Determinants of trade union membership in Western Germany

PB - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre der Universität Lüneburg

CY - Lüneburg

ER -