IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/5.html

Sources of the Union Wage Gap: Results from High-Dimensional Fixed Effects Regression Models

Author

Listed:
  • Addison, John T.
  • Portugal, Pedro
  • Vilares, Hugo

Abstract

We estimate the impact of union density on wages using Portuguese matched employer-employee-contract data, extending Gelbach’s (2016) omitted variable bias decomposition procedure to obtain the contribution of worker, firm, and job-title heterogeneity to the union wage premium. The principal result is the dominance of the firm fixed effect: the allocation of workers among firms with different wage policies. For their part, the unobserved skills of union workers have only a modest impact on wages. In turn, job titles reflect the average contract in the collective agreement, while the wage cushion offers firms a margin of flexibility, partially undoing increases in the bargained wage. Finally, there is little to suggest that the union wage gap is influenced by improved match quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Addison, John T. & Portugal, Pedro & Vilares, Hugo, 2017. "Sources of the Union Wage Gap: Results from High-Dimensional Fixed Effects Regression Models," GLO Discussion Paper Series 5, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/152322/1/GLO_DP_0005.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Addison, John T. & Portugal, Pedro & Vilares, Hugo, 2015. "Unions and Collective Bargaining in the Wake of the Great Recession," IZA Discussion Papers 8943, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. R. Alison Felix & James R. Hines, 2022. "Corporate taxes and union wages in the United States," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(6), pages 1450-1494, December.
    3. Ana Rute Cardoso & Paulo Guimarães & Pedro Portugal, 2016. "What drives the gender wage gap? A look at the role of firm and job-title heterogeneity," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 68(2), pages 506-524.
    4. 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.
    5. Ana Rute Cardoso & Pedro Portugal, 2005. "Contractual Wages and the Wage Cushion under Different Bargaining Settings," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(4), pages 875-902, October.
    6. John T. Addison & Claus Schnabel (ed.), 2003. "International Handbook of Trade Unions," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2705.
    7. Anabela Carneiro & Paulo Guimarães & Pedro Portugal, 2012. "Real Wages and the Business Cycle: Accounting for Worker, Firm, and Job Title Heterogeneity," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 133-152, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jose Garcia‐Louzao & Marta Silva, 2024. "Coworker networks and the labor market outcomes of displaced workers: Evidence from Portugal," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 389-413, July.
    2. Pedro S. Martins, 2021. "30,000 Minimum Wages: The Economic Effects of Collective Bargaining Extensions," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(2), pages 335-369, June.
    3. Alessandro Sforza, 2020. "Shocks and the Organization of the Firm: Who Pays the Bill?," CESifo Working Paper Series 8084, CESifo.
    4. Pedro Silva Martins, 2019. "The Microeconomic Impacts of Employee Representatives: Evidence from Membership Thresholds," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 591-622, October.

    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. Cardoso, Ana Rute & Guimaraes, Paulo & Portugal, Pedro & Reis, Hugo, 2018. "The Returns to Schooling Unveiled," IZA Discussion Papers 11419, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. Fernando Martins & Paulo Guimarães & Pedro Portugal, 2017. "Upward Nominal Wage Rigidity," Working Papers w201702, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    3. Pedro Portugal & Hugo Reis & Paulo Guimarães & Ana Rute Cardoso, 2023. "What lies behind returns to schooling: the role of labor market sorting and worker heterogeneity," Working Papers w202322, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    4. Addison, John T. & Portugal, Pedro & de Almeida Vilares, Hugo, 2023. "Union membership density and wages: The role of worker, firm, and job-title heterogeneity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 612-632.
    5. Bernd Fitzenberger & Karsten Kohn & Alexander C. Lembcke, 2013. "Union Density and Varieties of Coverage: The Anatomy of Union Wage Effects in Germany," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(1), pages 169-197, January.
    6. Pedro Portugal & John T. Addison, 2015. "Unions and Collective Bargaining in the Wake of the Great Recession," Working Papers w201506, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    7. Antonczyk, Dirk & Fitzenberger, Bernd & Sommerfeld, Katrin, 2010. "Rising wage inequality, the decline of collective bargaining, and the gender wage gap," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 835-847, October.
    8. repec:ptu:bdpart:e202007 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Pedro Portugal, 2020. "The sources of wage variability in Portugal: a binge reading survey," Economic Bulletin and Financial Stability Report Articles and Banco de Portugal Economic Studies, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    10. Addison, John T. & Portugal, Pedro & Vilares, Hugo, 2015. "Sources of the Union Wage Gap: Results from High-Dimensional Fixed Effects Regression Models," IZA Discussion Papers 9221, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. Walsh, Frank, 2013. "The union wage effect and ability bias: Evidence from Ireland," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 296-298.
    12. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3mjt8d63i195voq228mf1sr91q is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Mion, Giordano & Opromolla, Luca David, 2014. "Managers' mobility, trade performance, and wages," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 85-101.
    14. Effrosyni Adamopoulou & Ernesto Villanueva, 2020. "Wage Determination and the Bite of Collective Contracts in Italy and Spain: Evidence From the Metalworking Industry," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2020_176, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    15. Maritza López-Novella & Salimata Sissoko, 2009. "Working Paper 12-09 - Salaires et négociation collective en Belgique : une analyse microéconomique en panel," Working Papers 0912, Federal Planning Bureau, Belgium.
    16. repec:ptu:bdpart:e201507 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Sónia Cabral & Cláudia Duarte, 2014. "Nominal and real wage rigidity: Does nationality matter?," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-20, December.
    18. Portugal, Pedro & Reis, Hugo & Guimaraes, Paulo & Cardoso, Ana Rute, 2025. "Human Capital Spillovers and the External Returns to Education," IZA Discussion Papers 17690, IZA Network @ LISER.
    19. Kohn, Karsten & Lembcke, Alexander C., 2007. "Wage Distributions by Bargaining Regime: Linked Employer-Employee Data Evidence from Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 2849, IZA Network @ LISER.
    20. João Pereira & Raul Ramos & Pedro S. Martins, 2025. "Wage Cyclicality and Labor Market Institutions," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(4), pages 598-615, October.
    21. Pierre Brochu & Louis-Philippe Morin, 2011. "Union Membership and Perceived Job Insecurity: 30 Years of Evidence from the American General social Survey," Working Papers 1106E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    22. 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.
    23. Denis Fougère & Erwan Gautier & Sébastien Roux, 2016. "The Impact of the National Minimum Wage on Industry-Level Wage Bargaining in France," Sciences Po Economics Publications (main) hal-01308722, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • J52 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Dispute Resolution: Strikes, Arbitration, and Mediation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:glodps: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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.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.