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Social Sciences › Social Sciences › Public Administration
Unions and Wage Inequality: The Roles of Gender, Skill and Public Sector Employment
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Overview
Paper Summary
Conflicts of Interest
Identified Weaknesses
Rating Explanation
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Paper Summary
Paperzilla title
Unions: Still Fighting for Wage Equality (But Mostly in the Public Sector)
Unionization continues to reduce wage inequality, especially in the public sector. While earlier studies found that unions reduced wage inequality for men but not women, this difference disappears when comparing union and non-union workers in the same sector. The key difference in union impacts is now between the public and private sectors, not between males and females.
Possible Conflicts of Interest
None identified
Identified Weaknesses
Observational data
The study relies on observational data, which makes it difficult to establish causality between unionization and wage inequality. Other factors, such as changes in technology or globalization, may be driving both trends.
Limited generalizability
The paper focuses on Canada and the U.S., which limits the generalizability of the findings to other countries with different labor market institutions.
Potential selection bias
The analysis assumes that union status is "as good as randomly assigned," which may not be entirely accurate. Unobserved worker characteristics could be correlated with both union status and wages, leading to biased estimates.
Rating Explanation
This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between unionization and wage inequality in Canada and the U.S. It addresses important limitations of earlier research by disaggregating by sector and accounting for changes in the composition of the unionized workforce. The findings are robust and have important policy implications. However, the reliance on observational data makes it difficult to definitively establish causality.
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Topic Hierarchy
File Information
Original Title:
Unions and Wage Inequality: The Roles of Gender, Skill and Public Sector Employment
File Name:
redir.pf.pdf
[download]
File Size:
0.73 MB
Uploaded:
July 14, 2025 at 07:01 AM
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