A Half Century of Trade Union Membership. The Cyclical Macro-Determinants of Postwar Union Growth in Belgium

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Vandaele
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Union Growth ◽  
Seminal Contribution ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Leftist Parties

Based on the seminal contribution of Bain and Elsheikh, this article explains the ebb and flow in trade union membership in Belgium from 1948 to 1995. With only four explanatory variables, the model clarifies more than 75 per cent of the fluctuations in Belgian trade union membership. The results show that rises in inflation, real wages and, due to the Ghent system, unemployment have a positive impact on unionization. Although there is an enforcement effect, a saturation effect takes over, indicating that further union growth is hampered by the union's own size. Mainly due to the 'Allgemeinkoalitionsfähighkeit' of the Belgian government system, the impact of leftist parties on unionization is not significant in a quantitative framework.

Een halve eeuw vakbondslidmaatschap : Een verkennende longitudinale studie naar enkele cyclische determinanten voor de ledenontwikkeling van de Belgische vakbonden, 1946-1995

Res Publica ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-32
Author(s):  
Kurt Vandaele
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Econometric Model ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Free Riding ◽  
Structural Variable ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
The Impact

This article explains the ebb and flow in Belgian trade union membership from 1946 to 1995 by replicating the econometric model by Bain and Elsheikhn in which changes in macro-economic variables are highly significant. Since the automatic indexation of wages and the extension of collective labour agreements invite free riding, the relevance of the change in inflation and real wage is quite striking. However, the free riding-effect is slowed down by the institutionalised presence of the trade unions on the work floor. The Ghent system explains the positive impact of the unemployment rate . The model is furthermore improved by the trade union density as a structural variable. The linear form reflects the enforcement effect, while the quadratic form mirrors the saturation effect on the trade union membership. Mainly due to the 'Allgemeinkoalitionsfähighkeit' of the Belgian government system, the impact of left parties on union growth and decline is not significant in a quantitative framework. With only four explanatory variables the model clarifies more than 75% of the fluctuations in Belgian trade union membership.

Was it worth it? The impact of the German minimum wage on union membership of employees

2021 ◽  
pp. 0143831X2110358
Author(s):  
Simon Ress ◽  
Florian Spohr
Keyword(s):  
Propensity Score ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Propensity Score Matching ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
German Trade ◽  
The Impact

This contribution scrutinises how introducing a statutory minimum wage of EUR 8.50 per hour, in January 2015, impacted German employees’ decision with regard to union membership. Based on representative data from the Labour Market and Social Security panel, the study applies a logistic difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach on entries into and withdrawals from unions in the German Trade Union Confederation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB). The results show no separate effect on withdrawals from or entries into unions after the minimum wage introduction for those employees who benefited financially from it, but a significant increase of entries overall. Thus, unions’ campaign for a minimum wage strengthened their position in total but did not reverse the segmentation of union membership patterns.

Political attitudes and trade union membership in the Nordic countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Strøby Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Impact

Do political attitudes influence the likelihood of employees being members of a trade union, and to what extent is this the case in the Nordic countries with their high aggregate levels of membership? In this article, I address these questions using European Social Survey data from 2012. The results show that left-wing political attitudes have the most impact on the likelihood of trade union membership in Sweden and to a lesser extent in Denmark. In Norway and Finland, there is no statistically significant impact. I argue that the impact of left-wing political attitudes on unionization in Sweden and Denmark reflects a conception among employees that trade unions are normative organizations.

The Impact of Unions on Pay Levels in Lower-Skilled Jobs

2001 ◽  
Vol 176 ◽  
pp. 76-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Forth ◽  
Neil Millward
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Employee Relations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sphere Of Influence ◽  
The Impact

The decline in trade union influence over the past two decades raises the question of whether pay levels in lower-skilled jobs now lie outside the unions' sphere of influence, as tacitly acknowledged by their acceptance and later endorsement of the principle of the statutory minimum wage. This article examines pay levels among lower-skilled jobs in the private sector in Britain using the Workplace Employee Relations Survey of 1998. It shows that trade unions still had a positive impact upon pay levels in lower-skilled jobs and identifies those forms of unionism associated with the largest premiums. However, the article also shows that the activities of trade unions did little to counteract the forces generating the lowest levels of pay.

scholarly journals Restoring Democracy to the Workplace? An Analysis of Union Membership Patters Before and After the Employment Contracts Act

1970 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Cregan ◽  
Chris Rudd ◽  
Stewart Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Employment Contracts ◽  
Market Participants ◽  
Before And After ◽  
One Year ◽  
The Impact

This paper investigates the impact of the Employment Contracts Act on trade union membership. Two separate surveys of labour market participants lvere conducted in Dunedin on the eve of the legislation and one year later. The findings demonstrated that for these samples, trade union membership in aggregate was not based on compulsion before the legislation and remained at a similar level a year later. Democracy was not restored to the workplace it was already apparent there. This implies that changes in the industrial relations system had already taken place prior to the legislation and it is suggested that these findings are explicable if the effect of the exigencies of the recession on both parries is taken account of In the ensuing discussion, reasons for the persistence of the same level of union membership after the legislation were considered. It was demonstrated that most members li'anted the union to act as their bargaining agent and felt few pressures regarding their choice of employment contract. In other words, employers did not utilise the provisions of the Act to weaken union membership, at least in the short term.

scholarly journals Exchange Rate, Terms of Trade and Employment Nexus: Evidence From Turkey

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Salah Uddin ◽  
Mahadi Hasan ◽  
Zobayer Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Exchange Rate ◽  
Real Wage ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Fixed Effect Model ◽  
Terms Of Trade ◽  
Fixed Effect ◽  
Moderate Increase ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Effect Model ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of the real exchange rate (RER) on employment, and real wage using quarterly disaggregated data (ISIC Rev 4 classification) composed of 19 industries in Turkey from 2010 to 2017. In our study, we employed the Fixed Effect Model, where industry-specific effects are used to control heterogeneity within the sectors. Moreover, robustness is applied to get rid of the heteroscedasticity in the error terms. Our results find that the currency appreciation has a negative, however insignificant effect on employment; whereas it has a significant positive impact on real wage. Generally, the terms of trade has no remarkable impact on employment and real wages; however, the larger industries have a substantial adverse impact on employment. Nevertheless, the interaction between currency appreciation and the top 25 per cent larger industries indicates a moderate increase in employment. The findings reflect that the appreciation of the domestic currency decreases employment at the industry level. The originality of this paper includes the effects of the terms of trade and interaction with currency appreciation in larger industries using Fixed Effect Model approach.

The Determinants of Trade Union Membership in Britain: A Survey of the Literature

ILR Review ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Mason ◽  
Peter Bain
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Business Cycle ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Environmental Determinants ◽  
Union Growth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Business Cycle

Trade union density, defined as the number of union members divided by the total number of workers, fell in Britain from 55% in 1979 to about 41% in 1989. (By comparison, the corresponding U.S. figures for those years are 23% and 16%.) Even before the decline began, British scholars and practitioners began focusing increasing attention on the determinants of union growth and decline. This literature review traces debate on the subject in Britain to the work of George Bain and his colleagues starting in the mid-1970s, and examines several key contributions of more recent years. The authors differentiate “structuralist” studies, which emphasize environmental determinants of union membership (such as the business cycle), from “interventionist” studies, which place more emphasis on the influence of unions themselves (through the involvement of full-time officials in recruiting, for example).

scholarly journals The Impact of Technological Innovation on Corporate Performance: Evidence From the Communication and Cultural Industry in China

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Maoguo Wu ◽  
Nan Gu
Keyword(s):  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Corporate Performance ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Cultural Industry ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
The Government ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
The Impact

China’s communication and cultural industry is an emerging industry at the primary stage of its development. Nowadays, the public’s increasing demand for cultural products, coupled with the strong support from the state and the government for the communication and cultural industry, have provided huge room for the development of this industry. However, some listed companies in the communication and cultural industry have not kept up with the constantly changing market and have not invested heavily in R&D and technological innovation, resulting in widespread product homogeneity and poor corporate performance. This paper empirically tests the impact of technological innovation on corporate performance of 56 listed companies from 2007 to 2016 in the communication and cultural industry. Along with variables that proxy technological innovation, variables that proxy solvency, profitability, operational capability, development capability, social responsibility, and shareholder indicators are included in the regression as explanatory variables. Empirical results show that technological innovation has a positive impact on the corporate performance of listed companies in the communication and cultural industry.

scholarly journals The Impact of Corporate Governance on the Financial Distress: Evidence from Pakistani Listed Companies

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-53
Author(s):  
Ahmed Hassan Jamal ◽  
◽  
Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Financial Distress ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Board Composition ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
The Impact

This study intends to assess how corporate governance affects the financial distress in non-financial listed companies in Pakistan. Sample of 53 companies was obtained from non-financial institutes listed in Pakistani stock exchange. Regression analysis is used to estimate the impact of explanatory variables including size of board, composition of board, audit committee independence and duality of CEO on the financial distress. The findings show that size of board, composition of board and CEO duality has a positive impact on Z-score of Pakistani listed firms. This implies that better the corporate governance practices in companies, lower will be the financial distress and vice versa.

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