EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Economic Impacts of Unionization on Private Sector Employers: 1984-2001

John DiNardo and David S. Lee

No 10598, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Economic impacts of unionization on employers are difficult to estimate in the absence of large, representative data on establishments with union status information. Estimates are also confounded by selection bias, because unions could organize at highly profitable enterprises that are more likely to grow and pay higher wages. Using multiple establishment-level data sets that represent establishments that faced organizing drives in the U.S. during 1984-1999, this paper uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the impact of unionization on business survival, employment, output, productivity, and wages. Essentially, outcomes for employers where unions barely won the election (e.g. by one vote) are compared to those where the unions barely lost. The analysis finds small impacts on all outcomes that we examine; estimates for wages are close to zero. The evidence suggests that at least in recent decades the legal mandate that requires the employer to bargain with a certified union has had little economic impact on employers, because unions have been somewhat unsuccessful at securing significant wage gains.

JEL-codes: J0 J2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv
Note: LS
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (147)

Published as DiNardo, John and David S. Lee. “Economic Impacts of New Unionization on U.S. Private Sector Employers: 1984-2001." Quarterly Journal of Economics 119, 4 (2004): 1383-1442.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w10598.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10598

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w10598

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by (wpc@nber.org).

 
Page updated 2024-12-10
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10598