Why So Unhappy? The Effects of Unionisation on Job Satisfaction

Alex Bryson, Lorenzo Cappellari and Claudio Lucifora ()

No 1498, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We use linked employer-employee data to investigate the job satisfaction effect of unionisation in Britain. We depart from previous studies by developing a model that simultaneously controls for the endogeneity of union membership and union recognition. We show that a negative association between membership and satisfaction only emerges where there is a union recognised for bargaining, and that such an effect vanishes when the simultaneous selection into membership and recognition is taken into account. We also show that ignoring endogenous recognition would lead to conclude that membership has a positive effect on satisfaction. Our estimates indicate that the unobserved factors that lead to sorting across workplaces are negatively related to the ones determining membership and positively related with those generating satisfaction, a result that we interpret as being consistent with the existence of queues for union jobs.

Keywords: job satisfaction; union membership; union recognition; endogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J28 J51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2005-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-lab and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 2010, 72 (3), 357-380

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Related works:
Journal Article: Why So Unhappy? The Effects of Unionization on Job Satisfaction* (2010)
Working Paper: Why so Unhappy? The Effects of Unionisation on Job Satisfaction (2005)
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