The effect of ethnic diversity on the participation in social groups: Evidence from trade unions.

Benos, Nikos and Kammas, Pantelis (2022): The effect of ethnic diversity on the participation in social groups: Evidence from trade unions.

Abstract

This paper advances the hypothesis that individuals in more ethnically fragmented societies, participate less in social groups. More precisely, the empirical analysis places the spotlight on trade unions and investigates whether ethnic diversity affects the decision of workers to participate in them. The analysis takes place along two layers:(a) cross-country and (b) individual level. First, building on a set of innovative instruments derived from the parasite-stress theory of values and sociality, our cross-country analysis seeks to exploit exogenous sources of variations in ethnic diversity and to establish a convincing relationship between ethnic diversity and trade union density across countries. In turn, by following an epidemiological approach, our analysis attempts investigate variations on the behavior of individuals whose social values potentially differ, but they all live in a common economic and institutional setting. To this end, we employ individual level data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and we investigate whether migrants that cοme from more ethnically fragmented societies participate less in trade unions in their European countries of residence. Consistent with the prediction of the theory, both layers of the empirical analysis provide evidence of a negative and highly significant relationship between ethnic diversity and the decision of the workers to participate in trade unions

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: trade unions, ethnic diversity, assortative sociality, parasites
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C2 - Single Equation Models ; Single Variables > C26 - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J15 - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants ; Non-labor Discrimination; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J5 - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining > J51 - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

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