Dissatisfied union workers: sorting revisited

Summary

A substantial literature argues that the reported job dissatisfaction of
union members is spurious. It reflects either the sorting of
dissatisfied workers into union membership or the sorting of union
recognition into worse jobs. We contribute by presenting the first panel
data estimates that hold constant first worker fixed effects and then
worker in job fixed effects. The estimates demonstrate that covered
union members typically report greater dissatisfaction even when
accounting for sorting in both dimensions. At the same time,
cross-sectional evidence of less satisfied covered non-members and
uncovered members vanishes when accounting for sorting.