A Tale of Two Countries: Unions, Closures and Growth in Britain and Norway

Alex Bryson and Harald Dale-Olsen

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Using linked private sector employer-employee panel data for Britain and Norway we explore the effects of unionization on workplace closure and employment growth over the period 1997-2004. Unions prolonged the life of low-wage workplaces in Britain, whereas Norwegian unions increased (reduced) closure hazards in high (low) waged workplaces. Contrary to earlier studies, unions had no effect on workplace growth in Britain. In Norway, union workplaces experienced 4 percent per annum lower growth. However, the estimation of a dynamic panel data model for Norway indicates positive long-term causal effects of union density on employment.

Keywords: Unions; closure; employment growth; comparative; system-GMM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Working Paper: A tale of two countries: unions, closures and growth in Britain and Norway (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0867

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