The Surprising Impacts of Unionization: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data

Brigham R. Frandsen

Journal of Labor Economics, 2021, vol. 39, issue 4, 861 - 894

Abstract: This study presents new evidence on the impacts of unionization using administrative data matching workers to employers in a regression discontinuity design. Close union elections exhibit substantial nonrandom selection or manipulation. Estimates accounting for this selection show that unionization substantially decreases payroll, employment, average worker earnings, and establishment survival. Payroll and earnings decreases are driven by composition changes, with older and higher-paid workers leaving unionizing establishments and younger workers joining or staying. Worker-level effects on earnings are small and are reconciled with large negative establishment-level effects in a model of employer and employee selection into union jobs.

Date: 2021
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