The rising skill premium and deunionization

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Acikgoz, Omer Tugrul; Kaymak, Baris
• 署名单位: Yeshiva University; Universite de Montreal; Universite de Montreal
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3932
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2014.01.002
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 37-50
• 关键词: wage inequality; Deunionization; Rising Skill Premium; technical change

摘要

During the past 50 years, the US economy has seen a rapid decline in labor union membership and a substantial rise in wage inequality. Since labor unions compress wages between skilled and unskilled workers, a rising skill premium encourages skilled workers to withdraw from the union. If this withdrawal is accompanied by a fall in the productivity of unskilled workers, firms become reluctant to hire the relatively expensive union workers, reinforcing the decline in the unionization rate. Evaluating this hypothesis, we find that the rise in the skill premium explains about 40% of the decline in the unionization rate. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.