Changes in Bargaining Status and Intra-Plant Wage Dispersion in Germany. Much Ado about Nothing?

John Addison, Paulino Teixeira, Katalin Evers and Arnd Kölling

No 24, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: A number of studies have reported that union decline is associated with rising overall wage inequality, not least in Germany where the phenomenon has been linked to economic resurgence. The present paper takes an unconventional approach to this potential source of rising inequality by examining intra-plant wage dispersion in the wake of establishments exiting from or entering into collective bargaining. Our estimation strategy hinges upon the identification of comparable groups of establishments and on both short-run and medium- to long-term changes in the wage structure. Using two main empirical strategies, we report at most a modest widening effect on dispersion for plants abandoning collective agreements. The converse does not apply for those establishments joining collective agreements. These two effects cast doubt on some of the more exaggerated claims as to the importance of deunionization to wage inequality.

Keywords: Germany; sectoral collective bargaining; deunionization; intra-plant wage inequality; changes in bargaining status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J51 J53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/155482/1/GLO_DP_0024.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:zbw:glodps:24

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().