IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ariqol/v17y2022i1d10.1007_s11482-020-09892-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trade Unions and Workers’ Life Satisfaction in South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Yong-Woo Lee

    (Yeungnam University)

Abstract

This study analyses the effects of trade unions’ presence in workplaces and union membership on workers’ overall life satisfaction. We estimate a correlated random effects panel ordered probit model using the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study. While the presence of unions increases the probability of reporting a higher level of overall life satisfaction, union membership has no effect. These effects exist only for healthy men who are employed on a permanent contract. Finally, we show that unions’ effects on life satisfaction have four mediating channels—job satisfaction, social security, real wage and fringe benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Yong-Woo Lee, 2022. "Trade Unions and Workers’ Life Satisfaction in South Korea," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 277-298, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:17:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s11482-020-09892-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11482-020-09892-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11482-020-09892-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11482-020-09892-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bjørnskov, Christian & Dreher, Axel & Fischer, Justina A.V., 2010. "Formal institutions and subjective well-being: Revisiting the cross-country evidence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 419-430, December.
    2. Bruce Headey & Mark Wooden, 2004. "The Effects of Wealth and Income on Subjective Well‐Being and Ill‐Being," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 80(s1), pages 24-33, September.
    3. Henry S Farber & Daniel Herbst & Ilyana Kuziemko & Suresh Naidu, 2021. "Unions and Inequality over the Twentieth Century: New Evidence from Survey Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(3), pages 1325-1385.
    4. Paul Miller & Charles Mulvey, 1992. "Trade Unions, Collective Voice and Fringe Benefits," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 68(2), pages 125-141, June.
    5. Louise Patterson & Brandon Walcutt, 2013. "Korean workplace gender discrimination research analysis: a review of the literature from 1990 to 2010," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 85-101, January.
    6. Patrice Laroche, 2016. "A Meta-Analysis of the Union–Job Satisfaction Relationship," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 709-741, December.
    7. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    8. Christian Bjørnskov & Axel Dreher & Justina Fischer, 2007. "The bigger the better? Evidence of the effect of government size on life satisfaction around the world," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 267-292, March.
    9. Richard B. Freeman, 1981. "The Effect of Unionism on Fringe Benefits," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 34(4), pages 489-509, July.
    10. Arie Kapteyn & Jinkook Lee & Caroline Tassot & Hana Vonkova & Gema Zamarro, 2015. "Dimensions of Subjective Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 625-660, September.
    11. Malinowski, B. & Minkler, M. & Stock, L., 2015. "Labor unions: A public health institution," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(2), pages 261-271.
    12. Lancaster, Tony, 2000. "The incidental parameter problem since 1948," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 391-413, April.
    13. Alex Bryson & Lorenzo Cappellari & Claudio Lucifora, 2004. "Does Union Membership Really Reduce Job Satisfaction?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 42(3), pages 439-459, September.
    14. Patrick Flavin & Alexander Pacek & Benjamin Radcliff, 2010. "Labor Unions and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from New Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 98(3), pages 435-449, September.
    15. Gary Chamberlain, 1980. "Analysis of Covariance with Qualitative Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 225-238.
    16. Mundlak, Yair, 1978. "On the Pooling of Time Series and Cross Section Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 69-85, January.
    17. Alex Bryson & Lorenzo Cappellari & Claudio Lucifora, 2010. "Why So Unhappy? The Effects of Unionization on Job Satisfaction," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(3), pages 357-380, June.
    18. Alex Bryson, 2007. "The Effect of Trade Unions on Wages," Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(2), pages 33-45.
    19. Miller, Paul & Mulvey, Charles, 1992. "Trade Unions, Collective Voice and Fringe Benefits," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 68(201), pages 125-141, June.
    20. Tove Helland Hammer & Ariel Avgar, 2005. "The Impact of Unions on Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Turnover," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 26(2), pages 241-266, January.
    21. Johanna Schauer, 2018. "Labor Market Duality in Korea," IMF Working Papers 2018/126, International Monetary Fund.
    22. Alex Bryson, 2014. "Union wage effects," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-35, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson & Colin Green, 2022. "Trade unions and the well‐being of workers," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 255-277, June.
    2. Vigren, Andreas, 2020. "The Distance Factor in Swedish Bus Contracts How far are operators willing to go?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 188-204.
    3. H. Allen Klaiber & Klaus Salhofer & Stanley R. Thompson, 2017. "Capitalisation of the SPS into Agricultural Land Rental Prices under Harmonisation of Payments," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(3), pages 710-726, September.
    4. Seonho Shin, 2021. "Were they a shock or an opportunity?: The heterogeneous impacts of the 9/11 attacks on refugees as job seekers—a nonlinear multi-level approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(5), pages 2827-2864, November.
    5. Anders Skrondal & Sophia Rabe-Hesketh, 2022. "The Role of Conditional Likelihoods in Latent Variable Modeling," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 87(3), pages 799-834, September.
    6. Blair Alexander & Robert Breunig, 2012. "A Monte Carlo Study of Bias Corrections for Panel Probit Models," CEPR Discussion Papers 662, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    7. Artz, Benjamin & Heywood, John S., 2020. "Unions, Worker Participation and Worker Well-Being," GLO Discussion Paper Series 705, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Goerke, Laszlo, 2020. "Unions and Workers' Well-being," GLO Discussion Paper Series 726, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Chen, Yi-Yi & Schmidt, Peter & Wang, Hung-Jen, 2014. "Consistent estimation of the fixed effects stochastic frontier model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 181(2), pages 65-76.
    10. Marine de Talance, 2017. "Quality Perceptions and School Choice in Rural Pakistan," Working Papers hal-01663029, HAL.
    11. Lionel WILNER, 2019. "The Dynamics of Individual Happiness," Working Papers 2019-18, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    12. Schumann, Martin & Severini, Thomas A. & Tripathi, Gautam, 2021. "Integrated likelihood based inference for nonlinear panel data models with unobserved effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 223(1), pages 73-95.
    13. Kondo, M., 2018. "Schooling and Within-Sector Labor Productivity Outcome in Uganda: Joint Estimation of Returns to Education and Labor Supply," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277473, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Bluhm, Richard & Crombrugghe, Denis de & Szirmai, Adam, 2012. "Explaining the dynamics of stagnation: An empirical examination of the North, Wallis and Weingast approach," MERIT Working Papers 2012-040, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    15. Murtazashvili, Irina & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 2016. "A control function approach to estimating switching regression models with endogenous explanatory variables and endogenous switching," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 190(2), pages 252-266.
    16. Toni Mora & Joan Gil & Antoni Sicras-Mainar, 2015. "The influence of obesity and overweight on medical costs: a panel data perspective," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 16(2), pages 161-173, March.
    17. Hajivassiliou, Vassilis, 2019. "Estimation and specification testing of panel data models with non-ignorable persistent heterogeneity, contemporaneous and intertemporal simultaneity and observable and unobservable dynamics," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102843, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Manudeep Bhuller & Christian N. Brinch & Sebastian Königs, 2017. "Time Aggregation and State Dependence in Welfare Receipt," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(604), pages 1833-1873, September.
    19. Alexander Pacek & Benjamin Radcliff & Mark Brockway, 2019. "Well-Being and the Democratic State: How the Public Sector Promotes Human Happiness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 1147-1159, June.
    20. Irina B. Grafova & Alan C. Monheit & Rizie Kumar, 2020. "How do changes in income, employment and health insurance affect family mental health spending?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 239-263, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:17:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s11482-020-09892-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.