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Journal of Labor Economics Vol. 16 No. 2 1998

Estimating the Effects of Unions on Wage Inequality in a Panel Data Model with Comparative Advantage and Nonrandom Selection

Thomas Lemieux1,2

1 Université de Montréal · 2 National Bureau of Economic Research

Abstract

This article considers the estimation of the structure of wages in union and nonunion sectors. It proposes an estimator that extends standard panel data techniques to the case in which the return to the permanent component of the error term is differently rewarded in the two sectors. The econometric model is used to estimate the effect of unions on both the level and the variance of wages in Canada. The findings indicate that unions increase the average wage of workers and compress the returns to observable measures of skill and to a time‐invariant unobservable measure of skill.

DOI
10.1086/209889
Volume
16
Issue
2
Pages
261-291
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

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