Variations in Union Presence and Density in Australia: Evidence from AWIRS, 1989

Abstract

There has been much recent work, using the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey data set, on the impact of unions on various economic variables. In contrast, this paper has union presence and density as the dependent variables, since not only are these of interest in their own right, but they also have the advantage of pointing to the potential bias of regression estimates that treat union impact variables as exogenous of the control variables typically used to predict union presence. Since establishment-level data is used, the factors that influence union activity from the employers' perspective are included. Thus, particular attention is paid to the impact of human resources management policies on union presence and density. The latter were found to be important, together with plant and firm size, workforce characteristics, and product market variables. The inclusion of the inverse Mills ratio in the density equation, to control for sample selectivity bias, was found to be necessary.