Uppsala Papers in Economic History,
Uppsala University, Department of Economic History

Abstract: In this paper, I use a new plant-level dataset to investigate the relationship between wages and the regional strength of unions. Using a shift-share or ’Bartik’ instrumental variables approach, I disentangle the causal effect of union strength on wage levels. I find statistically and economically significant, heterogeneous union wage effects for men with the bottom of the distribution being impacted by union density and the top two-thirds being unaffected. I find a negative effect around the median for women and argue that unions, in general, were uninterested in the issues for women and were organizations mostly for men, by men. The paper contributes to the literature by providing the only evidence of a union wage effect in Sweden and, the earliest identified union wage effect anywhere—highlighting the importance of unions in shaping labor market outcomes in the early 20th century and showing that union wage effects have to be understood in their historical context.

Keywords: Labor Market; Union Effect; Wages

JEL-codes: J01; J31; J51

Language: English

38 pages, December 8, 2023

Full text files

496  Full text

Download statistics

• Uppsala University, Department of Economic History
• Home page for this series

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Anders Ögren ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

This page generated on 2024-02-05 17:13:52.