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Unions, Wage Gaps, and Wage Dispersion: New Evidence from the Americas
Author(s) -
RiosAvila Fernando,
Hirsch Barry T.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
industrial relations: a journal of economy and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.61
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1468-232X
pISSN - 0019-8676
DOI - 10.1111/irel.12044
Subject(s) - wage dispersion , wage , economics , distribution (mathematics) , labour economics , politics , efficiency wage , dispersion (optics) , political science , mathematical analysis , physics , mathematics , optics , law
Using a common methodology, the effects of unions on wage levels and wage dispersion are estimated for two neighboring countries, Bolivia and Chile, and for the United States. The analysis shows that unions have broadly similar effects on the wage distribution within these three economies. The findings suggest that the political economy of unions, coupled with market constraints on labor costs, produce commonality in union wage effects that transcend other economic and institutional differences.