Asymmetries in union relative wage effects in Ghanaian manufacturing - an analysis applying quantile regressions

Niels-Hugo (Hugo) Blunch and Dorte Verner ()

No 2570, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: The authors analyze the determinants of earnings in Ghanaian manufacturing, focusing on the impact of unions in terms of the"union relative wage effect", and the possible asymmetries of this effect across the earnings distribution. They find evidence of a union relative wage effect occurring through two distinct channels. First, there is a direct effect through individual union membership, the standard"union premium", well known from the empirical literature on unions. Second, there is a spillover effect to non-union members. The authors also find evidence of an additional union effect, that comes through firm-specific training. They confirm their conjecture that there is an asymmetry in the union relative wage effect: unions benefit mainly at the lower end of the wage distribution. This finding is in line with earlier research, which generally finds that unions reduce income inequality, and wage discrimination. An evaluation of the non-union sub-sample, using the estimated union wage structure, confirms the presence of structural differences between the union, and non-union segments of Ghanaian manufacturing: for given characteristics, a worker in the union sector earns more than a worker in the non-union sector.

Keywords: Geographical Information Systems; Environmental Economics&Policies; Labor Management and Relations; Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Economic Theory&Research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001-03-31
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSC ... d/PDF/multi0page.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2570

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi ().