How representative are social partners in Europe? The role of dissimilarity

Abstract

Social partners (trade unions and employers' associations) shape labour institutions and economic and social outcomes in many countries. In this paper, we argue that, when examining social partners' representativeness, it is important to consider both affiliation and dissimilarity measures. The latter concerns the extent to which affiliated and nonaffiliated firms or workers are distributed similarly across relevant dimensions, including firm size. In our analysis of European Company Survey data, we find that affiliation and dissimilarity measures correlate positively across countries, particularly in the case of employers' associations. This result also holds across employers' associations when we use firm population data for Portugal. Overall, we conclude that higher affiliation rates do not necessarily equate to more representative social partners as they can involve greater dissimilarity between affiliated and non-affiliated firms.

Employer associations in Italy: Trends and economic outcomes

“…In constructing this index, an important step consists of defining labour market cells. We have followed an approach similar to Martinez Matute and Martins (2022), defining a labour market cell as the interaction between sectors, regions and classes of firms' size. In particular, we have used a definition of cells constructed using three firm size levels (below 15, between 15 and 49 and above 49 employees), four geographic levels (North-West, North-East, Centre and Southern Italy) and 12 industry levels.…”

Membership in employers’ associations and collective bargaining coverage in Germany

“…Such coordination ensures that firms comply with the standards of apprenticeship training and contributes to preventing poaching of skilled labor (Soskice, 1994). More generally, it reduces competition among employers by facilitating collusion so they get monopsony power in the labor market (Martins, 2020). An EA can help sustain collusion by monitoring firms.…”

“…Furthermore, if younger firms have a lower ability to pay, the wages set in collective agreements may be too high for these firms (Martins, 2020). The technology of younger firms may have not yet been well defined (Bartel, 1994) and they are less likely to produce well-known products providing a brand loyalty of customers (Scherer, 1980).…”

“…Employers' associations are also important actors in the political system lobbying the state on behalf of their members and participating in corporatist arrangements. This gives rise to the question of their representativeness (Martinez Matute and Martins, 2020). Examining the factors that influence firms' membership in employers' associations can provide useful indications of which interests employers' associations represent in the political arena.…”

“…Altogether, this study contributes to the literature by combining two hitherto largely unconnected strands of studies -studies on collective bargaining coverage and studies on membership in employers' associations. In particular, the fledgling literature on membership in employers' associations is rather small (e.g., Behrens and Helfen, 2016;Gooberman et al, 2019;Martins, 2020;Silvia and Schroeder, 2007). A few studies have used aggregate industry-or country-level data to examine the determinants of membership density (Brandl and Lehr, 2019;Helfen, 2011;Traxler, 2000Traxler, , 2004.…”