Union status of young men in Britain: A decade of change

Previous empirical studies of individual union status in Britain have been cross-sectional. In contrast, we use longitudinal data from the National Ch ild Development Study, to estimate the determinants of male trade union mem bership over the period 1981-1991. As suggested by union theories, we find that it is important to control for unobserved individual heterogeneity, an d our preferred model allows for correlation of individual heterogeneity wi th observable variables. Our estimates reveal that the observed decline in very large workplaces, and the contraction of the public sector, explain ab out one third of the predicted decline in union membership over the period. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.