Determinants of Trade Union Membership in Western Germany: Evidence from Micro Data, 1980-2000
26 Pages Posted: 13 Mar 2003
Date Written: January 2003
Abstract
An empirical analysis of various waves of the ALLBUS social survey shows that union density fell substantially in West Germany from 1980 to 2000. Such a negative trend can be observed for men and women and for different groups of the workforce. Repeated crosssectional analyses suggest that a number of personal, occupational and attitudinal variables such as sex, occupational status, firm size and political orientation play a role in the unionization process, although the influence of many variables is not robust over time. While the results are consistent with cost-benefit considerations on the sides of employees and unions, individualization theory and social custom theory is not consistently supported by our estimations.
Keywords: Trade Union Membership, Germany, Micro Data
JEL Classification: J51
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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