Changes in bargaining status and intra-plant wage dispersion in Germany: a case of (almost) plus ça change?

"Recent studies have pointed to the association between declining collective bargaining coverage and rising overall wage inequality. This association holds more or less across-the-board, at least for broad swathes of recent history. That said, the exact contribution of deununionization is a mat...

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Main Authors: Addison, John T., Kölling, Arnd, Teixeira, Paulino
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Bonn 2014
IZA
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19118198124919363709-Changes-in-bargaining-status-a.htm
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author Addison, John T.
Kölling, Arnd
Teixeira, Paulino
author_facet Addison, John T.
Kölling, Arnd
Teixeira, Paulino
collection Library items
description "Recent studies have pointed to the association between declining collective bargaining coverage and rising overall wage inequality. This association holds more or less across-the-board, at least for broad swathes of recent history. That said, the exact contribution of deununionization is a matter of debate, perhaps no more so than in Germany, our case study. The present paper takes a less conventional approach to this particular source of rising inequality by examining intra-plant wage dispersion in the wake of establishments either exiting from or entering into collective agreements. Several measures of inequality are constructed for German establishments over the twelve-year period 1996-2008, an interval of continuously declining union representation. Using linked employer-employee data, our estimation strategy hinges upon the identification of comparable groups of establishments and on both instantaneous and medium- to long-term changes in the wage structure. A modest widening effect on dispersion of exiting from a sectoral agreement is detected in the data once we effect a comparison across observationally-equivalent individuals. The converse does not apply in respect of joiners. The scale of the former effect casts doubt on some of the more exaggerated claims of the importance of deunionization to wage inequality and the resurgence of Germany more generally."
format TEXT
geographic Germany
id 19118198124919363709_572bb9e6cbd64e769f7a7b6cdf9271b9
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19118198124919363709_572bb9e6cbd64e769f7a7b6cdf9271b9
is_hierarchy_title Changes in bargaining status and intra-plant wage dispersion in Germany: a case of (almost) plus ça change?
language English
physical 33 p.
Digital
publishDate 2014
publisher Bonn
IZA
spellingShingle Addison, John T.
Kölling, Arnd
Teixeira, Paulino
collective bargaining
statistics
trade unionization
wage differential
sectoral social dialogue
Changes in bargaining status and intra-plant wage dispersion in Germany: a case of (almost) plus ça change?
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=109211392749
title Changes in bargaining status and intra-plant wage dispersion in Germany: a case of (almost) plus ça change?
topic collective bargaining
statistics
trade unionization
wage differential
sectoral social dialogue
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19118198124919363709-Changes-in-bargaining-status-a.htm