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Join the Union and Be Safe: The Effects of Unionization on Occupational Safety and Health in the European Union
Author(s) -
Economou Athina,
Theodossiou Ioannis
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
labour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.403
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1467-9914
pISSN - 1121-7081
DOI - 10.1111/labr.12048
Subject(s) - union density , work (physics) , join (topology) , occupational safety and health , demographic economics , sample (material) , panel data , gross domestic product , persistence (discontinuity) , european union , labour economics , business , political science , economics , international trade , engineering , economic growth , collective bargaining , law , econometrics , mechanical engineering , chemistry , mathematics , chromatography , combinatorics , geotechnical engineering
This paper investigates the effect of unionization on occupational safety and health, as measured by the fatal and non‐fatal work accidents, after controlling for the country's gross domestic product. It uses a panel sample of 10 E uropean U nion countries, for the period 1982–2006. The study takes into account the time persistence in work injuries and the endogenous nature of the work injuries–union density relationship. In addition, the effect of union density is decomposed into a temporary and permanent effect. It is shown that increasing union density is associated with a decrease in the number of both fatal and non‐fatal work injuries.