An Empirical Examination of Union Density in Six Countries: Canada, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, the United States and Venezuela

Resumen

Union density is an indication of the strength and potential influence of the labor movement in an economy. This paper examines and compares union density in six countries: Canada, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, the U.S. and Venezuela. Two determinants of union density are examined: (1) the structure of the paid labor force, and (2) the probability that a worker with given labor force characteristics is a union member. The union density gap between Canada, the country with the highest union density, and each country is decomposed in order to explore the contribution of each determinant to the gap. 3 1 I would like to thank Gabriela Cordourier for help in compiling the data for this project.