1st Edition

The Economics of Trade Unions A Study of a Research Field and Its Findings

    202 Pages
    by Routledge

    202 Pages 29 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Richard B. Freeman and James L. Medoff’s now classic 1984 book What Do Unions Do? stimulated an enormous theoretical and empirical literature on the economic impact of trade unions. Trade unions continue to be a significant feature of many labor markets, particularly in developing countries, and issues of labor market regulations and labor institutions remain critically important to researchers and policy makers.





    The relations between unions and management can range between cooperation and conflict; unions have powerful offsetting wage and non-wage effects that economists and other social scientists have long debated. Do the benefits of unionism exceed the costs to the economy and society writ large, or do the costs exceed the benefits? The Economics of Trade Unions offers the first comprehensive review, analysis and evaluation of the empirical literature on the microeconomic effects of trade unions using the tools of meta-regression analysis to identify and quantify the economic impact of trade unions, as well as to correct research design faults, the effects of selection bias and model misspecification.





    This volume makes use of a unique dataset of hundreds of empirical studies and their reported estimates of the microeconomic impact of trade unions. Written by three authors who have been at the forefront of this research field (including the co-author of the original volume, What Do Unions Do?), this book offers an overview of a subject that is of huge importance to scholars of labor economics, industrial and employee relations, and human resource management, as well as those with an interest in meta-analysis.

    Introduction: why study studies of unionism?



    Meta-analysis as arbiter in debates



    Structure of the book





    1 A bibliometric analysis of What Do Unions Do?



    Freeman and Medoff’s research agenda



    Approach and data



    Analysis



    Summary





    2 Research synthesis through meta-regression analysis 



    The core challenge of inference



    Collecting and coding meta-data



    Effect size



    Meta-averages



    Multiple meta-regression analysis



    Summary





    3 Unions and productivity: direct estimates



    Unions and productivity levels



    Unions and productivity in manufacturing industries



    Unions and productivity in other industries



    Summary





    4 Unions and productivity growth



    Unions and productivity growth: new data for an old issue



    Summary





    5 Unions and productivity: investment channels



    Unions and physical capital investment



    Unions and investment in intangible capital



    Summary





    6 Unions and productivity: employee behavior channels



    Unions and employee turnover



    Unions and job satisfaction



    Unions and organizational commitment



    Summary





    7 Unions and financial performance of firms



    Unions and profits



    Summary





    8 Summary and conclusions





    Findings on union effects



    Measured and unmeasured artifacts in research of union effects



    Challenges for future research and policy

    Biography

    Hristos Doucouliagos is Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, and the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Australia.



    Richard B. Freeman holds the Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University. He directs the National Bureau of Economic Research/Science Engineering Workforce Projects and is Senior Research Fellow in Labour Markets at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance, UK.



    Patrice Laroche is Professor of Human Resource Management and Labor Relations at the ISAM-IAE Nancy (Université de Lorraine) and at the ESCP Europe Business School, France.

    '...generally helpful scene-setting remarks anchor each chapter, and the authors are evenhanded throughout in their discussion of the literature.'

    John T. Addison, Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, and Department of Economics and Finance, Durham University Business School (UK), and Research Fellow, IZA Bonn