Trade Union Membership and Dismissals

Konferenzbeitrag

In Germany, there is no trade union membership wage premium, while the membership fee amounts to 1% of the gross wage. Therefore, prima facie, there are strong incentives to free-ride on the benefits of trade unionism. We establish empirical evidence for a private gain from trade union membership which has hitherto not been documented: in West Germany, union members are less likely to lose their jobs than non-members. In particular, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel we can show that roughly 50% of the observed raw differential in individual dismissal rates can be explained by the estimated average partial effect of union membership.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Beiträge zur Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik 2010: Ökonomie der Familie - Session: Determinants of Unemployment ; No. D6-V3

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects ; Labor Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs ; Public Goods
• Subject: dismissal ; free-riding ; trade union membership ; survey data

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Pannenberg, Markus ; Goerke, Laszlo
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Verein für Socialpolitik
• (where): Frankfurt a. M.
• (when): 2010

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/37259
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET