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Is Declining Union Membership Contributing to Low Wages Growth? Discussion

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  • van Rens, Thijs

Abstract

As union membership is declining, it is natural to ask whether this decline results in slower wage growth. The paper by James Bishop and Iris Chan (2019) studies this question in the context of the recent slowdown in wage growth in Australia and argues the answer is a clear “No”. It is a pleasure to discuss this paper, which not only adds to the discussion about the recent slowing in wage growth in Australia but makes some interesting contributions to the academic literature on unions as well.

Suggested Citation

  • van Rens, Thijs, 2019. "Is Declining Union Membership Contributing to Low Wages Growth? Discussion," MPRA Paper 95413, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:95413
    as

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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/95413/1/rba-conference-2019-bishop-chan-discussion.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2017. "The labor market in the US, 2000–2016," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 361-361, April.
    3. Garry Barrett, 2018. "The labor market in Australia, 2000–2016," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-11, July.
    4. James Bishop & Iris Chan, 2019. "Is Declining Union Membership Contributing to Low Wages Growth?," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2019-02, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    5. Benedikt Herz & Thijs Van Rens, 2020. "The labor market in the UK, 2000–2019," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 422-422, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    wage growth; unions;

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

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