Determinants of Trade Union Membership in Western Germany: Evidence from Micro Data, 1980-2000

Claus Schnabel () and Joachim Wagner ()

No 708, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Abstract: An empirical analysis of various waves of the ALLBUS social survey shows that union density fell substantially in West Germany from 1980 to 2000. Such a negative trend can be observed for men and women and for different groups of the workforce. Repeated crosssectional analyses suggest that a number of personal, occupational and attitudinal variables such as sex, occupational status, firm size and political orientation play a role in the unionization process, although the influence of many variables is not robust over time. While the results are consistent with cost-benefit considerations on the sides of employees and unions, individualization theory and social custom theory is not consistently supported by our estimations.

Keywords: trade union membership; Germany; micro data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-lab and nep-pke
Date: 2003-01
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