Asymmetries in Union Relative Wage Effects in Ghanaian Manufacturing : An Analysis Applying Quantile Regressions

Blunch, Niels-Hugo ; Verner, Dorte

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ADVERSE EFFECTS;    ALLOCATIVE EFFICIENCY;    CAPITAL MARKETS;    CAPITAL THEORY;    CENTER;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2570
RP-ID  :  WPS2570

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The authors analyze the determinants ofearnings in Ghanaian manufacturing, focusing on the impactof unions in terms of the "union relative wageeffect", and the possible asymmetries of this effectacross the earnings distribution. They find evidence of aunion relative wage effect occurring through two distinctchannels. First, there is a direct effect through individualunion membership, the standard "union premium",well known from the empirical literature on unions. Second,there is a spillover effect to non-union members. Theauthors also find evidence of an additional union effect,that comes through firm-specific training. They confirmtheir conjecture that there is an asymmetry in the unionrelative wage effect: unions benefit mainly at the lower endof the wage distribution. This finding is in line withearlier research, which generally finds that unions reduceincome inequality, and wage discrimination. An evaluation ofthe non-union sub-sample, using the estimated union wagestructure, confirms the presence of structural differencesbetween the union, and non-union segments of Ghanaianmanufacturing: for given characteristics, a worker in theunion sector earns more than a worker in the non-union sector.