Wage Share, Market Power and Unionism: Some Contrary U.S. Evidence

In a recent article, Cowling and Molho (1982) presented empirical evidence on the relationships among the wage share, market power, and unionism in the U.K. Using multiple regression analysis on cross-sectional 1968 data for 118 industries,1 they found strong, negative relationships between the share of production worker wages in value added and two measures of monopoly power in the product market, namely, concentration and advertising intensity. However, utilizing several alternative measures of union power, they found only limited support for the hypothesis that union power is positively associated with this wage share. Cowling and Molho (hereafter, GM) also examined the relationships between the share of non-production worker salaries in value added and these same market power variables. They found a significant, positive relationship between the salary share and concentration and no relationship between the salary share and advertising intensity. Their one puzzling result was that union power appeared to be more closely related to the salary share of nonproduction workers than it was to the wage share of production workers. The C-M results with respect to the concentration-wage share relationship are inconsistent with the only previously published study on the topic (Maroney and Allen, 1969) but consistent with the unpublished work of Barbee (1974). Since little empirical work has been done on this question, and since no other study has estimated the effect of either advertising or union power on the wage and salary shares, it is clear that more research on these questions is in order

From the Acting Editor in Chief

Welcome to the Spring 2023 issue of Parameters. This issue consists of an In Focus special commentary and the SRAD Director’s Corner focused on Afghanistan, three forums, and two Reviews and Replies

The Effects of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) On African-American Christian Females

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to communicate the experiences of African American Christian females with intimate partner violence (IPV). The central phenomenon of the study aimed to research religious effects on African American Christian females\u27 decision-making regarding IPV in the state of Georgia. The theory guiding this study was social constructivism, introduced by two sociologists, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckman. The study\u27s goal was to depend as much as possible on the stories of the members being examined. Data will be collected using two methods: interviews and oral history. A critical case sampling was used to collect specific information about the problem, providing access and ease in collecting data. Themes were generated from the analysis of significant statements provided by participants. The data from research questions were used to highlight significant statements, sentences, or quotes that explained how the participants experienced the phenomenon. Interviews were semi-structured and consisted of open-ended questions to allow the participants to speak freely about their lived IPV experiences