TY - UNPB

T1 - The aging of the unions in West Germany, 1980-2006

AU - Schnabel, Claus

AU - Wagner, Joachim

N1 - Literaturverz. S.16 - 17

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - Using data from the social survey ALLBUS for West Germany in the period 1980 to 2006, this paper demonstrates that union members are on average older than non-unionized employees. The probability of being unionized shows the inverted U-shaped pattern in age conjectured by Blanchflower (BJIR 2007) only in very few years. It is demonstrated that both intra-cohort change and cohort replacement effects have played a roughly equal role in the substantial fall in union density since 1980. If older cohorts with high densities continue to be replaced by young cohorts with low densities, average union density will fall further.

AB - Using data from the social survey ALLBUS for West Germany in the period 1980 to 2006, this paper demonstrates that union members are on average older than non-unionized employees. The probability of being unionized shows the inverted U-shaped pattern in age conjectured by Blanchflower (BJIR 2007) only in very few years. It is demonstrated that both intra-cohort change and cohort replacement effects have played a roughly equal role in the substantial fall in union density since 1980. If older cohorts with high densities continue to be replaced by young cohorts with low densities, average union density will fall further.

KW - Economics

KW - union membership

KW - union density

KW - cohort effects

KW - West Germany

M3 - Working papers

T3 - Diskussionspapiere

BT - The aging of the unions in West Germany, 1980-2006

PB - Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

CY - Erlangen

ER -