A tale of two countries: unions, closures and growth in Britain and Norway

Alex Bryson and Harald Dale-Olsen

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

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)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2008-05
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/19589/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:ehl:lserod:19589

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