Thursday, June 27, 2013
A1.18D (Oudemanhuispoort)
Our paper will analyze ESS data to probe the effects of union membership on preferences for redistribution. We will explore two competing perspectives: unions as sources of (economic) information and unions as promoters of solidaristic values. Supposing that union members have better understanding of their own position in income distribution and the effects of redistributive policies, we might expect a stronger link between income and preferences for redistribution among union members than among other respondents. On the other hand, the second perspective leads us to expect higher support for redistribution among union members than among other respondents. Existing literature shows that union membership is associated with support for redistribution when we control for income. This might be interpreted as evidence of an ideological union effect. However, two further issues must be explored before we conclude that unions are agents of ideological socialization. Many high-income union members work in the public sector and their support for redistribution may be motivated by self-interested calculations to the extent that redistribution is associated with higher wages and better employment conditions in the public sector. In addition, there is the question of self-selection: people with solidaristic values may be more likely to join unions. We will estimate models that interact income and union membership for private-sector employees only and also explore whether the ideological effect of union membership varies across levels on unionization (on the assumption that the self-selection effect is stronger when unionization is lower).
