The Surprising Impacts of Unionization: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Frandsen, Brigham R.
• 署名单位: Brigham Young University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/711852
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 861-894
• 关键词: regression discontinuity designs; private-sector; unions; wages; manipulation

摘要

This study presents new evidence on the impacts of unionization using administrative data matching workers to employers in a regression discontinuity design. Close union elections exhibit substantial nonrandom selection or manipulation. Estimates accounting for this selection show that unionization substantially decreases payroll, employment, average worker earnings, and establishment survival. Payroll and earnings decreases are driven by composition changes, with older and higher-paid workers leaving unionizing establishments and younger workers joining or staying. Worker-level effects on earnings are small and are reconciled with large negative establishment-level effects in a model of employer and employee selection into union jobs.