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Unions and the Great Compression of wage inequality in the US at mid‐century: evidence from local labour markets

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  • William J. Collins
  • Gregory T. Niemesh

Abstract

This article tests whether places with higher exposure to unionization during the 1940s, due to their pre‐existing industrial composition, tended to have larger declines in wage inequality, conditional on local economic and demographic observables and regional trends. We find a strong negative correlation between exposure to unionization and changes in local inequality from 1940–50 and 1940–60. This does not appear to be underpinned by skill‐specific sorting of workers or by firms leaving places with high exposure to unionization. We also find that the correlation between exposure to unionization in the 1940s and the change in inequality after 1940 persists in long‐difference regressions to the end of the twentieth century.

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  • William J. Collins & Gregory T. Niemesh, 2019. "Unions and the Great Compression of wage inequality in the US at mid‐century: evidence from local labour markets," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 72(2), pages 691-715, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:72:y:2019:i:2:p:691-715
    DOI: 10.1111/ehr.12744
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    Cited by:

    1. Eriksson, Katherine & Alsan, Marcella & Niemesh, Gregory T., 2020. "Understanding the Success of the Know-Nothing Party," CEPR Discussion Papers 15562, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Henry S Farber & Daniel Herbst & Ilyana Kuziemko & Suresh Naidu, 2021. "Unions and Inequality over the Twentieth Century: New Evidence from Survey Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(3), pages 1325-1385.
    3. William J. Collins & Gregory T. Niemesh, 2024. "Income Gains and the Geography of the US Home Ownership Boom, 1940 to 1960," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic History of American Inequality: New Evidence and Perspectives, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Brantly Callaway & Weige Huang, 2020. "Distributional Effects of a Continuous Treatment with an Application on Intergenerational Mobility," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(4), pages 808-842, August.

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