ICES Experimental Economics Brown Bag Lecture
The Career Effects of Union Membership
Thursday, May 11, 2023 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EDT
Vernon Smith Hall (formerly Metropolitan Building), Room 5075
The Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES) presents an ICES Brown Bag Lecture featuring:
Norwegian School of Economics
The Career Effects of Union Membership
Abstract
We combine exogenous variation in union membership with detailed administrative data and a novel field survey to estimate the career effects of labor union membership. In our survey, we show how workers perceive the role of unions in determining their pay and work amenities. In the administrative data, we examine through which channels unions influence worker outcomes, whether unions influence workers differently across their careers, and the overall lifetime insurance value of individual union membership. Our results highlight that the career effect of union membership differs greatly depending on the age at which workers enroll. In addition, we show that focusing on a restricted set of outcomes, such as wages and employment, generates a fractionalized understanding of the multidimensional career effect that union membership has on workers.
For more information about the Brown Bag Lectures, please visit the Brown Bag Schedule homepage.
