American Economic Review Vol. 115 No. 6 2025

Leaders in Social Movements: Evidence from Unions in Myanmar

Laura Boudreau¹; Rocco Macchiavello²; Virginia Minni³; Mari Tanaka⁴

¹ Columbia University, NBER, BREAD, CEPR, IZA, and IGC (email: ) · ² London School of Economics, STICERD, and IGC (email: ) · ³ University of Chicago, CEPR, and IZA (email: ) · ⁴ University of Tokyo, Hitotsubashi University, and IZA (email: )

Abstract

Social movements are catalysts for crucial institutional changes. To succeed, they must coordinate members’ views (consensus building) and actions (mobilization). We study union leaders within Myanmar’s burgeoning labor movement. Union leaders are positively selected on both ability and personality traits that enable them to influence others, yet they earn lower wages. In group discussions about workers’ views on an upcoming national minimum wage negotiation, randomly embedded leaders build consensus around the union’s preferred policy. In an experiment that mimics individual decision-making in a collective action setup, leaders increase mobilization through coordination.

DOI

10.1257/aer.20230758

Volume

115

Issue

6

Pages

1975-2000

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

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