The Rise and Fall of Unions in the U.S

Emin Dinlersoz and Jeremy Greenwood

No 18079, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Union membership displayed a ∩-shaped pattern over the 20th century, while the distribution of income sketched a ∪. A model of unions is developed to analyze these phenomena. There is a distribution of firms in the economy. Firms hire capital, plus skilled and unskilled labor. Unionization is a costly process. A union decides how many firms to organize and its members' wage rate. Simulation of the developed model establishes that skilled-biased technological change, which affects the productivity of skilled labor relative to unskilled labor, can potentially explain the above facts. Statistical analysis suggests that skill-biased technological change is an important factor in de-unionization.

JEL-codes: J23 J24 J51 L11 L16 L23 O14 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-his and nep-lab
Note: EFG
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Working Paper: THE RISE AND FALL OF UNIONS IN THE U.S (2013)
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