IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/334.html

Cross-generation correlations of union status for young people in Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Blanden, Jo
  • Machin, Stephen

Abstract

This paper investigates whether young people whose fathers are union members are themselves more likely to join a union. We find that young people with unionized fathers are twice as likely to be unionized as those with non-union fathers and that this rises to three times higher for those whose fathers are active in the union. This supports the idea that socialization within the family plays a role in encouraging union membership. It is not the case that the cross-generation correlations we observe are driven by common within-family characteristics (like occupation, industry and political persuasion) that are strongly related to union membership.

Suggested Citation

  • Blanden, Jo & Machin, Stephen, 2003. "Cross-generation correlations of union status for young people in Britain," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 334, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:334
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/334/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chevalier, Arnaud, 2002. "Just Like Daddy: The occupational choice of UK Graduates," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2002 47, Royal Economic Society.
    2. Stephen Machin, 2004. "Factors of Convergence and Divergence in Union Membership," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 42(3), pages 423-438, September.
    3. Nickell, Stephen & Redding, Stephen & Swaffield, Joanna K, 2001. "Educational Attainment, Labour Market Institutions and the Structure of Production," CEPR Discussion Papers 3068, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Rafael Gomez & Morley Gunderson & Noah Meltz, 2002. "Comparing Youth and Adult Desire for Unionization in Canada," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 40(3), pages 542-519, September.
    5. Wiji Arulampalam & Alison L. Booth, 2000. "Union status of young men in Britain: a decade of change," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(3), pages 289-310.
    6. Farber, Henry S, 1983. "The Determination of the Union Status of Workers," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(5), pages 1417-1437, September.
    7. Guadalupe, Maria, 2003. "The hidden costs of fixed term contracts: the impact on work accidents," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 339-357, June.
    8. Stephen Machin, 2000. "Union Decline in Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 38(4), pages 631-645, December.
    9. Green, Francis, 1990. "Trade Union Availability and Trade Union Membership in Britain," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 58(4), pages 378-394, December.
    10. Freeman, Richard B, 1984. "Longitudinal Analyses of the Effects of Trade Unions," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(1), pages 1-26, January.
    11. Dalton, Russell J., 1980. "Reassessing Parental Socialization: Indicator Unreliability Versus Generational Transfer," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 421-431, June.
    12. Card, David, 1996. "The Effect of Unions on the Structure of Wages: A Longitudinal Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(4), pages 957-979, July.
    13. repec:bla:econom:v:53:y:1986:i:29:p:41-61 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Gomez, Rafael & Gunderson, Morley & Meltz, Noah, 2001. "From 'playstations' to 'workstations': youth preferences for unionisation in Canada," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20100, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Jennings, M. Kent & Niemi, Richard G., 1968. "The Transmission of Political Values from Parent to Child," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(1), pages 169-184, March.
    16. Duranton, Gilles, 2002. "City size distributions as a consequence of the growth process," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20065, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Andy Charlwood, 2002. "Why Do Non–union Employees Want to Unionize? Evidence from Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 40(3), pages 463-491, September.
    18. Alison Booth, 2012. "The Economic Behavior of Trade Unions," CEPR Discussion Papers 670, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    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. Olivier Guillot & Magali Jaoul-Grammare & Isabelle Terraz, 2019. "Union Membership in France: An Empirical Study," Working Papers of BETA 2019-04, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    2. Alex Bryson & Rhys Davies, 2019. "Family, Place and the Intergenerational Transmission of Union Membership," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(3), pages 624-650, September.
    3. Jim Foreman & Howard Gospel, 2002. "The Provision of Training in Britain: Case Studies of Inter-Firm Coordination," CEP Discussion Papers dp0555, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Blanchflower, David G., 2006. "A Cross-Country Study of Union Membership," IZA Discussion Papers 2016, IZA Network @ LISER.
    5. Vaona, Andrea, 2006. "The duration of union membership: An empirical study," Kiel Working Papers 1268, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    6. Peter Haynes & Jack Vowles & Peter Boxall, 2005. "Explaining the Younger– Older Worker Union Density Gap: Evidence from New Zealand," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 43(1), pages 93-116, March.
    7. A Charlwood, 2003. "The Anatomy of Union Decline in Britain: 1990-1998," CEP Discussion Papers dp0601, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    8. Nicole Gürtzgen, 2016. "Estimating the Wage Premium of Collective Wage Contracts: Evidence from Longitudinal Linked Employer–Employee Data," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 294-322, April.
    9. Stephen Machin, 2004. "Factors of Convergence and Divergence in Union Membership," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 42(3), pages 423-438, September.
    10. Charlwood, Andy, 2003. "The anatomy of union decline in Britain: 1990-1998," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20006, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Dan Devroye & Richard B. Freeman, 2001. "Does Inequality in Skills Explain Inequality in Earnings Across Advanced Countries?," NBER Working Papers 8140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Steven Raphael, 2000. "Estimating the Union Earnings Effect Using a Sample of Displaced Workers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 53(3), pages 503-521, April.
    13. Wiji Arulampalam & Alison L. Booth, 2000. "Union status of young men in Britain: a decade of change," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(3), pages 289-310.
    14. Walsh, Frank, 2013. "The union wage effect and ability bias: Evidence from Ireland," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 296-298.
    15. Adele Bergin, 2015. "Employer Changes and Wage Changes: Estimation with Measurement Error in a Binary Variable," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 29(2), pages 194-223, June.
    16. James Bishop & Iris Chan, 2019. "Is Declining Union Membership Contributing to Low Wages Growth?," RBA Annual Conference Papers acp2019-06, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    17. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:1039-1089 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Christopher R. Bollinger, 2001. "Response Error and the Union Wage Differential," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 68(1), pages 60-76, July.
    19. Manquilef-Bächler, Alejandra A. & Arulampalam, Wiji & Smith, Jennifer C., 2009. "Differences in Decline: Quantile Regression Analysis of Union Wage Differentials in the United Kingdom, 1991-2003," IZA Discussion Papers 4138, IZA Network @ LISER.
    20. Dean, Andrés, 2024. "Worker takeovers: a comparative analysis of employee buyouts, other worker-managed firms, and conventional firms in Uruguay," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20, pages 1-1, January.
    21. Fidan Ana Kurtulus & Douglas Kruse, 2018. "An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between Employee Ownership and Employment Stability in the US: 1999–2011," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(2), pages 245-291, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

    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:ehl:lserod:334. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.