This paper re-examines the connection between unions and wage inequality, focusing on three questions: (1) How does the union wage effect vary across the wage distribution? (2) What is the effect of unionism on the overall variance of wages at the end of the 1980s? (3) How much of the increase...

The rise in college wage premium is well documented, though with shifting sands of consensus on its main causes. This paper intends to investigate if, and how, intangible capital drives wage inequality, and to what extent the outcomes can be shaped by pre-distribution policies. We construct a...

This study uses Current Population Survey micro data for 1973-74 and 1993 to evaluate the effect of changing union membership on trends in male and female wage inequality. Unionization rates of men fell between the two sample periods, with bigger declines among lower skill groups. These trends...

This paper analyzes the relationship between unemployment and growth, applying the seminal growth model of Aghion/Howitt (1992). We distinguish low skilled and high skilled labor and assume that a union bargains over the low skilled labor wage. This causes unemployment, but the growth effect is...

In Canada, most racial minorities have lower rates of unionization than do members of the majority workforce. Data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (N = 32,634) show that racial minority immigrants assimilate into unionization over time. However, unionization reduces net minority...

Trade unions tend to reduce the dispersion of wages among their members. Skilled workers may therefore have an incentive to separate from an encompassing union and organize into a separate craft union. In this paper, we examine a theoretical model to gain insight into the determinants of the...

This paper explores the impact of 'threat effects' of foreign direct investment on labor markets in the United States. In this context, the term 'threat effect' refers to the use by employers of the implicit or explicit threat that they will move all or part of their production to a different...