Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/46285 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 3196
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
In Germany, there is no trade union membership wage premium, while the membership fee amounts to 1% of the gross wage. Therefore, prima facie, there are strong incentives to free-ride on the benefits of trade unionism. We establish empirical evidence for a private gain from trade union membership which has hitherto not been documented: in West Germany, union members are less likely to lose their jobs than non-members. In particular, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel we can show that roughly 50% of the observed raw differential in individual dismissal rates can be explained by the estimated average partial effect of union membership.
Subjects: 
dismissal
free-riding
trade union membership
survey data
JEL: 
C23
H41
J51
J63
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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