Estimating the Relationship Between Labour Market Tightness, Unemployment Insurance Benefits, and Union Election Activity

Robert Baumann (), Bryan Engelhardt, David Fuller and Ryan Haley ()
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Ryan Haley: Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh

No 1609, Working Papers from College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics

Abstract: Using detailed data from the US National Labor Relations Board, we find labour market tightness, defined as the ratio of job vacancies to the number of unemployed, has a positive relationship with the likelihood of voting in favour of union representation. Specifically, a 1 SD increase in labour market tightness increases Vote Share in favour and the likelihood of union certification by roughly 1.5% and 3%, respectively. We also find that length of unemployment insurance benefits has a positive relationship with Vote Share in favour. Taken together, these results suggest that workers are more comfortable engaging in pro-union election behaviours when exogenous conditions, like labour market tightness and unemployment insurance benefit duration, shift in a way that more favourably insulates them from unemployment and income risk.

Keywords: Job openings; unemployment; labour market tightness; job search; unemployment insurance benefits; union elections; unionization strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 5 pages
Date: 2016-12
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Published in Applied Economics Letters, Volume 25, Number 5, 2018, Pages 354-358.

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Journal Article: Estimating the relationship between labour market tightness, unemployment insurance benefits and union election activity (2018)
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