Volume 12, Number 4 (Fall) 1977
Kiefer, Nicholas M., and Sharon P. Smith. 1977. "Union Impact and Wage Discrimination by Region." Journal of Human Resources 12(4):521-534.
Regional differences in the structures of wages, their implications for the measurement of wage differentials by race and sex, and the impact of unions on these wage differentials are investigated in this paper. A procedure for measuring wage differentials in an earnings-function framework is developed and applied to data from the May 1973 Current Population Survey. The effects of unionism on these differentials are measured. Substantial regional variation in wage differentials and the effects of unionism on wage differentials is found. The estimates imply that unionism has the effect of reducing racial wage differentials in the South (leaving them virtually unchanged in the other regions) and increasing intersex wage differentials (due largely to the intersex variation in the extent of union membership) in the three regions considered.
Kiefer is on the faculty of the University of Chicago Department of Economics. Smith is an Economist in the Business Conditions Division, Domestic Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Financial assistance for this study was provided by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. SOC 74-13200A01. This paper was written while we were associated with the Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University. We are deeply indebted to Mark R. Killingsworth for his helpful comments. In addition, we would like to thank Orley Ashenfelter, Farrell Bloch, Judith Gross, Albert Rees, and the editor and two referees of this Journal for useful remarks on an earlier draft. This paper represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve System. Responsibility for all error lies with the authors.
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