TY - JOUR

T1 - Unions as insurance: Workplace unionization and workers' outcomes during COVID-19

AU - Braakmann, Nils

AU - Hirsch, Boris

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Industrial Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Regents of the University of California (RUC).

PY - 2024/4

Y1 - 2024/4

N2 - We investigate to what extent workplace unionization protects workers from external shocks by preventing involuntary job separations. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a plausibly exogenous shock hitting the whole economy, we compare workers who worked in unionized and non-unionized workplaces directly before the pandemic in a difference-in-differences framework. We find that unionized workers were substantially more likely to remain working for their pre-COVID employer and to be in employment. This greater employment stability was not traded off against lower working hours or labor income.

AB - We investigate to what extent workplace unionization protects workers from external shocks by preventing involuntary job separations. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a plausibly exogenous shock hitting the whole economy, we compare workers who worked in unionized and non-unionized workplaces directly before the pandemic in a difference-in-differences framework. We find that unionized workers were substantially more likely to remain working for their pre-COVID employer and to be in employment. This greater employment stability was not traded off against lower working hours or labor income.

KW - Economics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85166653726&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/233f5830-8059-395b-a6df-3c282d9a81fe/

U2 - 10.1111/irel.12344

DO - 10.1111/irel.12344

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85166653726

VL - 63

SP - 152

EP - 171

JO - Industrial Relations

JF - Industrial Relations

SN - 0019-8676

IS - 2

ER -