The economic effects of faculty unions

The relationship between faculty salaries and unionism at Ph.D.-level universities is investigated. Unlike previous attempts at analyzing this topic, the model endogenizes the union-nonunion choice using appropriate techniques for analyzing limited dependent variables. These techniques allow computation of average salaries for all schools under the assumption that they are unionized and also under the assumption that they are not unionized. Subtraction of the predicted nonunion salary from the union salary provides an estimate of salary differences, which is corrected for selectivity bias.     

The impact of labor unions on the passage of economic legislation

This paper examines the political power of labor unions. A model of the decision of an interest group to contribute to a political campaign is developed and tested. The empirical evidence indicates that interest groups, and unions in particular, use political contributions in a systematic and coordinated manner. Unions give money to candidates with relatively little seniority (who might otherwise not be elected) and to candidates from districts with about the average number of union members. Such candidates might otherwise not vote as the union would desire. The influence of campaign contributions and of union membership on the voting of congressmen on issues of interest to unions is also investigated. Union membership is sometimes significant and campaign contributions are always significant in explaining voting on minimum wages, wageprice controls, benefits for strikers, and OSHA and CETA appropriations. The indirect economic effects of labor unions — those effects which occur because unions influence legislation — may be as important as the direct effects which occur through collective bargaining.     

The effect of unions on labor markets and economic growth: An analysis of state data

Despite voluminous research on unions, there still is no consensus on how unions affect a state's economy. Using a panel of 48 U.S. states for the 1978–1994 period, we estimate a series of simultaneous equations to analyze how unions affect various economic barometers. This provides measures for the partial correlations between unions and performance. The model is then re-estimated using regional dummies to capture fixed effects and to highlight regional differences in the slope of the Phillips curve. We find that unions adversely affect unemployment rates and the growth rates of gross state product (GSP), productivity, and population, while increasing the rate of wage inflation. The impact on the employment growth rate is negative but not significant. A test for fixed effects reveals regional differences in GSP growth. Regional differences in popu-lation growth are not significant. Also, the slope of the Phillips curve is significantly dif-ferent across regions.     

Employee involvement programs: The noninvolvement of unions revisited

We employ a person-situation interaction approach to assess the consequences for unions of not getting involved in an employee involvement (EI) program. Our results demonstrate that unions experience negative selection and program effects when they remain aloof from the EI program. Our findings, in conjunction with prior research, indicate that union leaders should resolve their uncertainty about involvement in the EI process in favor of participation.     

The economic consequences of the dissolution of cohabiting unions

Although the economic effects of divorce have been well studied, a similar exploration of cohabitation has not been conducted. For this analysis, we use a sample from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 2,372) documenting changes in economic well‐being at the end of a cohabiting relationship and comparing these results to a sample of divorced respondents. After dissolution, formerly cohabiting men's economic standing declines moderately, whereas formerly cohabiting women's declines much more precipitously, leaving a substantial proportion of women in poverty. This effect is particularly pronounced for African American and Hispanic women. Though the end of the relationship does reinforce gender stratification, it is also an “equalizer” between married and cohabiting women, leaving them in strikingly similar economic positions.     

The Chilean economic miracle revisited

This article examines some basic principles of socioeconomics and communitarianism as exhibited in the case of Chile. The socioeconomic hypothesis o of primary concern is the argument that the market economy functions best when contained within a properly structured social capsule. The communitarian hypothesis of principal interest is that, in purely Humean terms, modern societies achieve “refinement” when they possess a strong network of community organizations which compete for dominance over the political system without undermining the fragile democratic rules of the game.Chile is used as a case study for two reasons. First, between 1965 and 1995 it experienced two extremes of socioeconomic organization and then achieved what appears to be a viable balance. Second, Chile is often cited as an example of the superiority of the neoliberal approach over the more balanced approach of socioeconomics. The article concludes that Chile's experience provides stronger support for the socioeconomic and communitarian views than for the neoliberal model.     

Discipline and due process in labor unions

This article examines the implications of bureaucratization for discipline and due process within labor organizations. Two perspectives on these relations were developed from the literature on union governance and tested with data from union constitutions and other secondary sources. The extent of due process protections was positively related to both bureaucratization and the number of grounds for discipline. The results support the solidarity perspective, which posits a convergence of union leaders’ and members’ interests.     

Public opinion and media coverage of labor unions

Public opinion about labor unions is influenced by a variety of factors, including media coverage. The type of media coverage unions receive provides a cognitive foundation for judgments about them and media coverage of unions has often been characterized as biased. This study examines media coverage of unions between 1946 and 1985 and shows that it became increasingly concentrated on strike activities and exaggerated the frequency of strikes. Moreover, strike-centered coverage has its strongest negative influence on individuals who lack ideological and group attachments to unions.     

Violence by U.S. labor unions

During the early 1800s, most violence connected with labor disputes was committed spontaneously by unorganized groups of workers. During the twentieth century, the pattern changed and most violence was caused by workers organized into unions. Although no statistics have been completed on how much violence has been committed by labor unions in the United States until recently, some indication may be obtained by examining National Labor Relations Board charges of violence filed against unions. Theories of striking and violence are discussed and an evaluation of theories on future trends in violence is made.     

Some economic effects of the California agricultural labor relations act

The California Agricultural Labor Relations Act (CALRA) evolved in the 1970s because the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) excluded agricultural workers. CALRA effectively placed the United Farm Workers Union in a stronger bargaining position vis-a-vis farmers than the NLRA had done for industrial unions vis-a-vis nonfarm business firms. Society has suffered a net economic loss from CALRA and the events preceding its enactment. Since passage of the act, at least three effects have been verified: Relative to conditions that would otherwise have been expected to exist, consumers are facing higher prices; agricultural workers are earning lower wages; and landowners have suffered losses in land values.     

Whatever happened to the monopoly theory of labor unions?

This paper argues that unions act in accord with the conventional cartel or monopoly model. The basic premise is that it is useful to ask what a “union maximizes” because if more wealth is available, union decision-makers have an incentive to capture it for themselves or their membership. In the formal model, unions negotiate wage rates which maximize the monetary surplus above the supply price of labor, providing an endogenous answer to the questions of how union employment and wages are simultaneously determined. Comparative static analysis yields empirical predictions about the behavior of union employment, wage rates, and union-nonunion wage differentials. I would like to acknowledge helpful comments by Richard Anderson, Ray Battalio, Hugh Macaulay, Michael Ormiston and Akira Takayama on earlier drafts of this paper. The usual caveat applies.     

What unions do: Insights from economic theory

Conclusion I have attempted to distill a quite sizable body of literature written by modern economists on the theory of labor unions, with particular emphasis given to the “two faces” view of unions developed by Freeman and Medolf in What Do Unions Do? Many important ideas and contributions have necessarily been omitted, but hopefully the main contours and implications are captured.     

Bonuses,unions, and labor productivity in South Korea

Using a set of time-series (1972–1989) and cross-sectional data on eight two-digit Korean manufacturing industries, we examine the variability of South Korea’s employee bonus system and the effect of the employee bonus on productivity. A test of the variability of the bonus showed that the bonus rate (ratio of the bonus to the wage) was positively influenced by industrial output, so the bonus is not merely a disguised wage. An augmented Cobb-Douglas production function estimation shows that the bonus has a positive and significant productivity effect. Capital-intensive and laborintensive industries did not have significantly different productivity effects due to the bonus. Lastly, Korean unions reduced labor productivity and negatively affected the productivity effect of the bonus. Also, compared with the previous period, the productivity effect of the bonus has become negative since the1987 Great Labor Offensive.     

State of the unions: Assessment by elite American labor leaders

One hundred and sixty-four elite union leaders in the United States completed a survey to assess the condition of the American labor movement and the factors affecting it. The respondents included high-level international union and state federation officers, central labor presidents, and 58 shop stewards. This study compares the responses of these labor officials and finds that they have similar, negative assessments of the condition of the American labor movement. The study also finds that these leaders agree that the most important factors affecting the labor movement are collective bargaining rights, union leadership, union member solidarity, and the NLRB.     

Agency costs,property rights,and the evolution of labor unions

Collective bargaining requires that an agent represent workers. This paper examines the implications for the trade union movement of the resulting agency costs. Without transferable rights in the union, union members lack the means and incentive to bring forth the innovative agent controls common to the modern corporation. Considerations of the bargaining strengths of employers and employees, each represented by an agent, provide an explanation of the simultaneous decline of private sector union membership (corporate share holders have been more successful at lowering agency costs) and growth of public sector union representation (where the union official, a “double agent,” serves the interest of both employee and bureaucratic employer). The authors acknowledge the helpful remarks Donald L. Martin whose earlier research on property rights in unions inspired this effort. Don Bellante’s work was supported by a grant from the Research Committee of the College of Business Administration, University of South Florida.     

Social differentiation and organic solidarity: Thedivision of labor revisited

This paper argues for the classicity of Durkheim's first book: the innovative way viewing the compatibility of social order and individual autonomy; his sensitive perception of uneasiness with regards to the crisis of anomie; the lucid sociological account, especially the tripartite explanation of the division of labor in terms of its functioning, emergence, and consequences; and the conceptualization of the problem of order—i.e., the relationship of differentiation and integration. In all of these respects, Durkheim's book is a classic. Yet classical neither means original nor flawless. This is shown with respect to the relationship of division of labor and organic solidarity by looking at the historical debate on the division of labor, by elucidating mechanical and organic solidarity, and by carving out some of the problems inside organic solidarity.