1st Edition
The Economics of Trade Unions A Study of a Research Field and Its Findings
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
