Union Threat and Non-Union Employment: A Natural Experiment on the Use of Temporary Employment in British Firms

Andrea Salvatori

No 5574, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper presents the first empirical evidence on the effect of the threat of unionisation on the use of a predominantly non-union type of employment, i.e. temporary employment. The identification strategy exploits an exogenous variation in union threat induced in the UK by new legislation enabling unions to obtain recognition even against the will of the management. The analysis finds no evidence of an effect on the probability that a firm employs fixed-term workers, and some weak evidence of a negative effect on the probability of using agency workers. Overall, therefore, there is no support for the hypothesis that firms under the threat of unionisation are more likely to use this type of non-union employment.

Keywords: union threat; difference in difference; temporary employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2011-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-eur and nep-lab
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Published - revised version published in: Labour Economics, 2012, 19 (6), 944–956

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Journal Article: Union threat and non-union employment: A natural experiment on the use of temporary employment in British firms (2012)
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