Leaders in social movements: evidence from unions in Myanmar

Laura Boudreau, Rocco Macchiavello, Virginia Minni and Mari Tanaka

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Social movements are catalysts for crucial institutional changes. To succeed, they must coordinate members’ views (consensus building) and actions (mobilization). We study union leaders within Myanmar’s burgeoning labor movement. Union leaders are positively selected on both ability and personality traits that enable them to influence others, yet they earn lower wages. In group discussions about workers’ views on an upcoming national minimum wage negotiation, randomly embedded leaders build consensus around the union’s preferred policy. In an experiment that mimics individual decision-making in a collective action setup, leaders increase mobilization through coordination.

Keywords: leaders; unions; consensus building; mobilization; field experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 J38 J51 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2025-06-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-lab
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Published in American Economic Review, 1, June, 2025, 115(6), pp. 1975 - 2000. ISSN: 0002-8282

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/126113/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Leaders in Social Movements: Evidence from Unions in Myanmar (2025)
Working Paper: Leaders in Social Movements: Evidence From Unions in Myanmar (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:126113

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