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Wage effects of unions and industrial councils in South Africa

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  • Kristin F. Butcher
  • Cecilia Elena Rouse

Abstract

Using data for 1995, the authors estimate union wage premia of about 20% for African workers and 10% for white workers-fairly close to similar estimates reported for other countries, including the United States. African nonunion workers who were covered by industrial council agreements received a premium of 6-10%; the premium was positive but not statistically significant for whites. Although the union/nonunion wage gap was smaller inside the industrial council system than outside it for Africans, the total union premium for union members covered by an industrial council agreement was similar to the union premium outside the industrial council system. Among Africans, the industrial council and union wage gaps were largest among low-wage workers. These findings, the authors conclude, do not support the common claim that a high union wage premium and the industrial council system are important causes of inflexibility in the South African labor market. (Author's abstract.)

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School in its journal ILR Review.

Volume (Year): 54 (2001)
Issue (Month): 2 (January)
Pages: 349-374

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Handle: RePEc:ilr:articl:v:54:y:2001:i:2:p:349-374

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References

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  1. Schultz, T.P. & Mwabu, G., 1997. "Labor Unions and the Distribution of Wages and Employment in South Africa," Papers 776, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
  2. Moll, Peter, 1996. "Compulsory Centralization of Collective Bargaining in South Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 326-29, May.
  3. Stephan Klasen & Ingrid Woolard, 1999. "Levels, trends and consistency of employment and unemployment figures in South Africa," Development Southern Africa, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 3-35.
  4. Aigner, Dennis J., 1973. "Regression with a binary independent variable subject to errors of observation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 49-59, March.
  5. Harry C. Katz, 1993. "The decentralization of collective bargaining: A literature review and comparative analysis," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 47(1), pages 3-22, October.
  6. Rosen, Sherwin, 1969. "Trade Union Power, Threat Effects and the Extent of Organization," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(106), pages 185-96, April.
  7. Sullivan, Daniel, 1989. "Monopsony Power in the Market for Nurses," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(2), pages S135-78, October.
  8. Griliches, Zvi, 1977. "Estimating the Returns to Schooling: Some Econometric Problems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(1), pages 1-22, January.
  9. Halvorsen, Robert & Palmquist, Raymond, 1980. "The Interpretation of Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 474-75, June.
  10. Heckman, James J, 1979. "Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(1), pages 153-61, January.
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Citations

Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. To understand earnings in Africa, we need to look past the formal/informal divide
    by Andrew Kerr in The CSAE Blog on 2012-06-01 11:47:25
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
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Cited by:
  1. Rama, Martin, 2003. "Globalization and workers in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2958, The World Bank.
  2. Haroon Bhorat & Carlene van der Westhuizen & Sumayya Goga, 2009. "Analysing Wage Formation in the South African Labour Market: The Role of Bargaining Councils," Working Papers 09135, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
  3. Ozler, Berk, 2007. "Not Separate, Not Equal: Poverty and Inequality in Post-apartheid South Africa," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(3), pages 487-529, April.
  4. Francis Teal & Geeta Kingdon & Justin Sandefur, 2005. "Labor Market Flexibility, Wages and Incomes in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-030, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
  5. Kingdon, Geeta & Knight, John, 2006. "The measurement of unemployment when unemployment is high," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 291-315, June.
  6. Carlos Casacuberta & Gabriela Fachola & Nestor Gandelman, 2004. "The Impact of Trade Liberalization on Employment, Capital, and Productivity Dynamics: Evidence from the Uruguayan Manufacturing Sector," Research Department Publications 3170, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
  7. Haroon Bhorat & Sumayya Goga & Carlene Van Der Westhuizen, 2012. "Institutional Wage Effects: Revisiting Union And Bargaining Council Wage Premia In South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 80(3), pages 400-414, 09.
  8. Damian Hattingh & James Hodge & Sandrine Rospabé, 2003. "The Impact of Privatisation and Regulatory Reform on Wage Premia in State-Owned Enterprises in South Africa," Working Papers 03078, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
  9. Azam, Jean-Paul & Rospabe, Sandrine, 2007. "Trade unions vs. statistical discrimination: Theory and application to post-apartheid South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 417-444, September.
  10. Paula Armstrong & Janca Steenkamp, 2008. "South African Trade Unions: an Overview for 1995 to 2005," Working Papers 10/2008, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
  11. David Fairris, 2007. "¿Qué hacen los sindicatos en México?," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 22(2), pages 185-240.
  12. Martin Rama, 2002. "Mondialisation, inégalités et politiques de l'emploi," Revue d’économie du développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 16(1), pages 43-83.
  13. Bennett, Mark, 2002. "Organizing workers in small enterprises : the experience of the Southern African clothing and textile workers' union," ILO Working Papers 357086, International Labour Organization.
  14. Bennett, M, 2003. "Organizing in the informal economy : a case study of the clothing industry in South Africa," ILO Working Papers 358155, International Labour Organization.
  15. Reza Daniels & Sandrine Rospabé, 2005. "Estimating an Earnings Function from Coarsened Data by an Interval Censored Regression Procedure," Working Papers 05091, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.

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