IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jlabrs/v58y2024i1d10.1186_s12651-024-00361-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Union membership and the wage gap between the public and private sectors: evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Xinxin Ma

    (Hosei University)

Abstract

As trade unions are active in corporations worldwide, their effects on the labor market have attracted global attention. However, there is scarce empirical evidence regarding how trade unions’ effects on the wage gap differ between the public and private sectors, especially in the Chinese context. Using national longitudinal survey data from the China Family Panel Studies for the years 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 and the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method, this study estimates unions’ effect on the wage gap between the public and private sectors in China. The results from the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method indicate the existence of a significant positive union wage premium nationwide. Additionally, the premium in the public sector is greater than that in the private sector. However, this effect becomes insignificant after accounting for individual heterogeneity using the fixed effects model. The decomposition results based on the OLS method indicate that the union coverage difference (the endowment effect) widens the wage gap between the public and private sectors; conversely, the union wage premium difference (the price effect) narrows the wage gap. These results indicate that a policy expanding union coverage in the private sector may effectively narrow the wage gap between both sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Xinxin Ma, 2024. "Union membership and the wage gap between the public and private sectors: evidence from China," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 58(1), pages 1-25, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabrs:v:58:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1186_s12651-024-00361-2
    DOI: 10.1186/s12651-024-00361-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s12651-024-00361-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s12651-024-00361-2?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wage gap; Public and private sector; Union coverage; Union wage premium; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • J53 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Labor-Management Relations; Industrial Jurisprudence
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • P21 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Planning, Coordination, and Reform
    • P31 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Socialist Enterprises and Their Transitions
    • P41 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Planning, Coordination, and Reform

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:jlabrs:v:58:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1186_s12651-024-00361-2. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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.