Management Opposition, Strikes and Union Threat
Patrick Nüß
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 17,
2025
Abstract
I estimate management opposition to unions in terms of hiring discrimination in the German labor market. By sending 13,000 fictitious job applications, revealing union membership in the CV and pro-union sentiment via social media accounts, I provide evidence for hiring discrimination against union supporters. Callback rates are on average 15% lower for union members. Discrimination is strongest in the presence of a high sectoral share of union members and large firm size. I further explore variation in regional and sectoral strike intensity over time and find suggestive evidence that discrimination increases if a sector is exposed to an intense strike. Discrimination is positively associated with the sectoral share of firms that voluntarily orientate wages to collective agreements. These results indicate that hiring discrimination can be explained by union threat effects.
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The Causal Impact of Gender Norms on Mothers’ Employment Attitudes and Expectations
Henning Hermes, Marina Krauß, Philipp Lergetporer, Frauke Peter, Simon Wiederhold
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 28,
2024
Abstract
This field experiment investigates the causal impact of mothers’ perceptions of gender norms on their employment attitudes and labor-supply expectations. We provide mothers of young children in Germany with information about the prevailing gender norm regarding maternal employment in their city. At baseline, over 70% of mothers incorrectly perceive this gender norm as too conservative – the most pronounced misperception among the various gender norms we examine. Our randomized information treatment improves the accuracy of these perceptions, significantly reducing the share of mothers who perceive gender norms as overly conservative. The treatment also shifts mothers’ own labormarket attitudes in a more liberal direction. Leveraging the fact that we assessed attitudes in a prior survey, we show that specifically the shifted attitude is a strong predictor of mothers’ future labor-market participation. Consistently, treated mothers are more likely to plan an increase in their working hours, particularly those with existing support to facilitate their employment.
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Supervision and Research
Supervision and Research Research A dissertation is, of course, first and foremost an individual endeavour which, in addition to the purely intellectual demands, also requires a…
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Job Market Candidates
Job Market Candidates Marius Fourné Marius Fourné is a PhD candidate in Economics at the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) and Martin Luther University of…
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Junior Professorship in VWL, esp. Financial Economics (W1)
Job Vacancy Junior Professorship in VWL, esp. Financial Economics (W1) The Faculty of Economics and Management Science at Leipzig University in cooperation with the Halle…
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3rd TSI Workshop
Presentations 3rd TSI Workshop Vienna The 3rd TSI Workshop, spanning two days, featured presentations and discussions on various aspects of micro data analysis and the Micro Data…
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26.03.2024 • 9/2024
Inflationssorgen wirken sich negativ auf nachhaltiges Konsumverhalten aus
Studie untersuchte Einflussfaktoren für den Kauf umweltfreundlicher Produkte
Sabrina Jeworrek
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Inflation Concerns and Green Product Consumption: Evidence from a Nationwide Survey and a Framed Field Experiment
Sabrina Jeworrek, Lena Tonzer
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 10,
2024
Abstract
Promoting green product consumption is one important element in building a sustainable society. Yet green products are usually more costly. In times of high inflation, not only budget constraints but also the fear that prices will continue to rise might dampen green product consumption and, hence, limit the effectiveness of exerted efforts to promote sustainable behaviors. To test this suggestion, we conducted a Germany-wide survey with almost 1,200 respondents, followed by a framed field experiment (N=500) to confirm causality. In the survey, respondents’ stated “green” purchasing behavior is, as to be expected, positively correlated with concerns about climate change. It is also negatively correlated with concerns about future inflation and energy costs, but after controlling for observable characteristics such as income and educational level only the correlation with concerns about future prices remains significant. This result is driven by individuals with below-median environmental attitude. In the framed field experiment, we use the priming method to manipulate the saliency of inflation concerns. Whereas sizably relaxing the budget constraint (i.e., by 50 percent) has no impact on the share of organic products in participants’ baskets, the priming significantly decreases the share of organic products for individuals with below-median environmental attitude, similar to the survey data.
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