TY - JOUR

T1 - The Aging of the Unions in West Germany, 1980-2006

AU - Schnabel, Claus

AU - Wagner, Joachim

N1 - Literaturverz. S. 510 - 511

PY - 2008/12

Y1 - 2008/12

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 efforts

KW - west germany

KW - Gender and Diversity

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=62449098620&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1515/jbnst-2008-5-606

DO - 10.1515/jbnst-2008-5-606

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 228

SP - 497

EP - 511

JO - Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik

JF - Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik

SN - 0021-4027

IS - 5/6

ER -