The rise and fall of unions in the U.S.
Dinlersoz, Emin ; Greenwood, Jeremy
2012
46 p.
income distribution ; skill ; technological change ; trade union ; trade union membership
Trade unionism
http://www.jeremygreenwood.net
English
[Internet download]
"Union membership displayed a ?-shaped pattern over the 20th century, while the distribution of income sketched a ?. A model of unions is developed to analyze these phenomena. There is a distribution of firms in economy. Firms hire capital, plus skilled and unskilled labor. Unionization is a costly process. A union decides how many firms to organize and its members' wage rate. Simulation of the developed model establishes that skilled-biased technological change, which affects the productivity of skilled labor relative to unskilled labor, can potentially explain the above facts. Statistical analysis suggests that skill-biased technological change is an important factor in deunionization."
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