What Businesses Attract Unions? Unionization over the Life Cycle of U.S. Establishments

Emin Dinlersoz, Jeremy Greenwood and Henry Hyatt

ILR Review, 2017, vol. 70, issue 3, 733-766

Abstract: What types of businesses attract unions? The study develops a theory of union learning and organizing to provide an answer to this question. A union monitors the productivity of establishments in an industry and uses this information to decide which ones to organize. An establishment becomes unionized if the union wins a certification election, the outcome of which can be influenced by costly actions taken by the two parties. The model offers predictions on the nature of union selection, which are examined empirically. Data on union certification elections, matched with data on establishment characteristics, are used to explore where union activity is concentrated.

Keywords: unionization; union organizing; union selection; union certification election; diffusion of unionization; employer resistance to unionization; Bayesian learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Related works:
Working Paper: What Businesses Attract Unions? Unionization over the Life-Cycle of U.S. Establishments (2016)
Working Paper: What Businesses Attract Unions? Unionization over the Life-Cycle of U.S. Establishments (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:70:y:2017:i:3:p:733-766

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