IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v62y2007i2p237-254.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social attitudes, labor law, and union organizing: Toward a new economics of union density

Author

Listed:
  • Palley, Thomas I.
  • LaJeunesse, Robert M.

Abstract

Much has been written about union wage bargaining. Much less has been written about union density, which has been viewed as simply the employment outcome under the wage bargain. This paper presents a new dynamic model of union density that exhibits multiple equilibria and path-dependency. The model builds upon Freeman (1998) who identified the importance of union spending on organizing and business spending on opposing unions. It emphasizes the demand for union representation which depends on wage bargaining outcomes, the state of labor law, and socio-economic factors impacting public attitudes to unions. The model is used to provide a narrative account of the historical evolution of union density in the U.S. and to identify factors important for its future evolution.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Palley, Thomas I. & LaJeunesse, Robert M., 2007. "Social attitudes, labor law, and union organizing: Toward a new economics of union density," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 237-254, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:62:y:2007:i:2:p:237-254
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167-2681(05)00255-6
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 1995. "The Wage Curve," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026202375x, December.
    2. Richard B. Freeman & Morris M. Kleiner, 1990. "Employer Behavior in the Face of Union Organizing Drives," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 43(4), pages 351-365, July.
    3. Ian M. McDonald & Robert M. Solow, 1985. "Wages and Employment in a Segmented Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 100(4), pages 1115-1141.
    4. McDonald, Ian M & Solow, Robert M, 1981. "Wage Bargaining and Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 896-908, December.
    5. Bowles,Samuel & Gintis,Herbert & Gustafsson,Bo (ed.), 1993. "Markets and Democracy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521432238, November.
    6. Shaked, Avner & Sutton, John, 1984. "Involuntary Unemployment as a Perfect Equilibrium in a Bargaining Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(6), pages 1351-1364, November.
    7. Richard B. Freeman, 1998. "Spurts in Union Growth: Defining Moments and Social Processes," NBER Chapters, in: The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century, pages 265-296, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Gilbert L. Skillman, 1991. "Efficiency vs. Control: A Strategic Bargaining Analysis of Capitalist Production," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 23(1-2), pages 12-21, March.
    9. Richard B. Freeman & James L. Medoff, 1979. "The Two Faces of Unionism," NBER Working Papers 0364, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Paul Krugman, 1995. "Growing World Trade: Causes and Consequences," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(1, 25th A), pages 327-377.
    11. William R. Cline, 1997. "Trade and Income Distribution," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 58.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lewkowicz Jacek & Lewczuk Anna, 2017. "An Institutional Approach to Trade Union Density. The Case of Legal Origins and Political Ideology," Central European Economic Journal, Sciendo, vol. 2(49), pages 35-49, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hideaki Aoyama & Corrado Di Guilmi & Yoshi Fujiwara & Hiroshi Yoshikawa, 2021. "Dual Labor Market and the "Phillips Curve Puzzle"," Papers 2103.06482, arXiv.org.
    2. Loïc Cadiou & Stéphanie Guichard & Mathilde Maurel, 2000. "Disparités institutionnelles et flexibilité des marchés du travail dans l'UE," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 332(1), pages 49-63.
    3. De Palma, Francesco & Seegmuller, Thomas, 2004. "Unions, wage differential and indeterminacy," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 205-218, September.
    4. Alex Bryson & Richard Freeman & Rafael Gomez & Paul Willman, 2017. "The Twin Track Model of Employee Voice: An Anglo-American Perspective on Union Decline and the Rise of Alternative Forms of Voice," DoQSS Working Papers 17-13, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    5. L. Josh Bivens, 2006. "Wages, Profits, and Rent-Sharing in an Open Economy," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 69-83.
    6. Konstantin Wacker, 2010. "The Influence of Trade with the EU-15 on Wages in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia between 1997 and 2005," FIW Working Paper series 047, FIW.
    7. Michael Burda & Michael Funke, 1993. "German trade unions after unification — Third degree wage discriminating monopolists?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 129(3), pages 537-560, September.
    8. Niven Winchester, 2008. "Trade and Rising Wage Inequality: What Can We Learn from a Decade of Computable General Equilibrium Analysis?," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: David Greenaway & Richard Upward & Peter Wright (ed.), Globalisation and Labour Market Adjustment, chapter 4, pages 54-72, Palgrave Macmillan.
    9. Toke Aidt & Zafiris Tzannatos, 2002. "Unions and Collective Bargaining : Economic Effects in a Global Environment," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15241, December.
    10. Sabien Dobbelaere & Mark Vancauteren, 2014. "Market imperfections, skills and total factor productivity : Firm-level evidence on Belgium and the Netherlands," Working Paper Research 267, National Bank of Belgium.
    11. Thomas Palley, 1998. "Macroeconomics with Conflict and Income Distribution," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 329-342.
    12. Corneo, Giacomo, 1995. "Social custom, management opposition, and trade union membership," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 275-292, February.
    13. Xiaokai Yang & Dingsheng Zhang, 1999. "International Trade and Income Distribution," CID Working Papers 18, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    14. Franz, Wolfgang, 1993. "Unvollkommene Arbeitsmärkte in makroökonomischen Modellen: Eine Übersicht," Discussion Papers 1, University of Konstanz, Center for International Labor Economics (CILE).
    15. Cassoni, Adriana & Labadie, Gastón J. & Fachola, Gabriela, 2002. "The Economic Effects of Unions in Latin America: Their Impact on Wages and the Economic Performance of Firms in Uruguay," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 3283, Inter-American Development Bank.
    16. Peter Huber & Yvonne Wolfmayr-Schnitzer, 2000. "Außenhandel und Löhne. Ein Literaturüberblick," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 73(3), pages 197-210, March.
    17. Cukierman, Alex & Lippi, Francesco, 1999. "Central bank independence, centralization of wage bargaining, inflation and unemployment:: Theory and some evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1395-1434, June.
    18. Andrew T. Young & Hernando Zuleta, 2016. "Golden Rules of Wages," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(1), pages 253-270, July.
    19. Francis Kramarz, 2003. "Wages and International Trade," Working Papers 2003-27, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    20. repec:wvu:wpaper:11-06 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. S. Dobbelaere, 2003. "Joint Estimation of Price-Cost Margins and Union Bargaining Power for Belgian Manufacturing," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 03/171, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:62:y:2007:i:2:p:237-254. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.