TY - JOUR
T1 - How representative are social partners in Europe?
T2 - The role of dissimilarity
AU - Matute, Marta Martínez
AU - Martins, Pedro S.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank comments from Keith Bender, Thomas Breda, Luis Catela Nunes, Joao Firmino, Peter Kerckhofs, Laszlo Goerke, Claudio Lucifora, Daphne Nicolitsas, Jonathan Thomas and participants in EmpRep meetings, 13th Labour Economics Workshop (Trier University), 2021 ILERA World Congress and XIV Spanish Labour Economics Meeting. We are also grateful for data access provided by the Ministry of Employment and Statistics Portugal, funding from the European Commission (EmpRep action, grant VP/2019/004/0038) and research assistance by Joana Saraiva. All errors are our own.
Funding Information:
We thank comments from Keith Bender, Thomas Breda, Luis Catela Nunes, Joao Firmino, Peter Kerckhofs, Laszlo Goerke, Claudio Lucifora, Daphne Nicolitsas, Jonathan Thomas and participants in EmpRep meetings, 13th Labour Economics Workshop (Trier University), 2021 ILERA World Congress and XIV Spanish Labour Economics Meeting. We are also grateful for data access provided by the Ministry of Employment and Statistics Portugal, funding from the European Commission (EmpRep action, grant VP/2019/004/0038) and research assistance by Joana Saraiva. All errors are our own. 1
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Social partners (trade unions and employers' associations [EA]) and their representativeness can shape labour institutions and economic and social outcomes in many countries. In this paper, we argue that, when examining social partners' representativeness, it is important to consider both affiliation rates and dissimilarity measures. The latter concerns the extent to which affiliated and non-affiliated firms or workers are distributed similarly across relevant dimensions, including firm size. In our analysis of the European Company Survey, we find that affiliation density and dissimilarity measures correlate positively across countries, particularly in the case of EA in which we focus. This result also holds across EA when we use more detailed, firm population data for Portugal. We conclude that higher affiliation densities do not necessarily correspond to more representative social partners as they can involve greater dissimilarity between affiliated and non-affiliated firms.
AB - Social partners (trade unions and employers' associations [EA]) and their representativeness can shape labour institutions and economic and social outcomes in many countries. In this paper, we argue that, when examining social partners' representativeness, it is important to consider both affiliation rates and dissimilarity measures. The latter concerns the extent to which affiliated and non-affiliated firms or workers are distributed similarly across relevant dimensions, including firm size. In our analysis of the European Company Survey, we find that affiliation density and dissimilarity measures correlate positively across countries, particularly in the case of EA in which we focus. This result also holds across EA when we use more detailed, firm population data for Portugal. We conclude that higher affiliation densities do not necessarily correspond to more representative social partners as they can involve greater dissimilarity between affiliated and non-affiliated firms.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141035771&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/labr.12232
DO - 10.1111/labr.12232
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85141035771
SN - 1121-7081
VL - 36
SP - 424
EP - 444
JO - Labour
JF - Labour
IS - 4
ER -
