A large number of potential determinants of union membership, which often can be interpreted in terms of costs and benefits, have been incorporated into economists' traditional supply and demand framework or into new models of an individual's decision to unionise (such as social custom theory)....

In Germany, trade unions and employers associations play a role not only in wage determination but also in social affairs and labour law. While the majority of firms are organized in employers associations, less than one quarter of employees are members of a trade union. Both social partners...

Mit Daten des ALLBUS 2002 und des European Social Survey 2002/03 analysiert diese Arbeit erstmalig die "Nie-Mitgliedschaft" in deutschen Gewerkschaften. Wir zeigen, dass 54 bis 59 Prozent aller Beschäftigten in Deutschland niemals Mitglied einer Gewerkschaft waren. Die individuelle...

Using representative individual-level data from the first round of the European Social Survey fielded in 2002/03, this paper provides an empirical analysis of unionization in 18 countries of the European Union. We show that union density varies considerably in Europe, ranging from 84 per cent in...

Using representative individual-level data from the first round of the European Social Survey fielded in 2002/03, this paper provides an empirical analysis of unionization in 18 countries of the European Union. We show that union density varies considerably in Europe, ranging from 84 per cent in...

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 cross-sectional analyses suggest that a...

Using data from the social survey ALLBUS for West Germany in the period 1980 to 2006, this paper demonstrates that union members are on average older than non-unionized employees. The probability of being unionized shows the inverted U-shaped pattern in age conjectured by Blanchflower (BJIR...

In this note we cast some doubt on the claim put forward by David Blanchflower (2007) that the probability of being unionized follows an inverted U-shaped pattern in age with a maximum in the mid- to late 40s. By using a special test for an inverted Ushaped pattern that has not been applied to...