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School board politics, school district size, and the bargaining power of teachers' unions

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  • Rose, Heather
  • Sonstelie, Jon

Abstract

This paper presents a public choice theory of the bargaining power of teachers' unions. The theory predicts that the power of the unions rises with the size of a district. The theory is tested by examining the relationship between district size and various bargaining outcomes for a sample of 771 California school districts in 1999-2000. As hypothesized, teachers' salaries rise and the ratio of teachers per pupil falls with increasing district size. The paper also considers several alternative explanations for these results.

Suggested Citation

  • Rose, Heather & Sonstelie, Jon, 2010. "School board politics, school district size, and the bargaining power of teachers' unions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 438-450, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juecon:v:67:y:2010:i:3:p:438-450
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    2. De Witte, Kristof & Schiltz, Fritz, 2018. "Measuring and explaining organizational effectiveness of school districts: Evidence from a robust and conditional Benefit-of-the-Doubt approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 267(3), pages 1172-1181.
    3. Jan K. Brueckner & David Neumark, 2014. "Beaches, Sunshine, and Public Sector Pay: Theory and Evidence on Amenities and Rent Extraction by Government Workers," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 198-230, May.
    4. Corey A. DeAngelis & Christos Makridis, 2021. "Are School Reopening Decisions Related to Union Influence?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(5), pages 2266-2284, September.
    5. Katharine O. Strunk & Sean F. Reardon, 2010. "Measuring the Strength of Teachers' Unions," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 35(6), pages 629-670, December.
    6. William Fischel, 2006. "Why Voters Veto Vouchers: Public Schools and Community-Specific Social Capital," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 109-132, May.
    7. Cassandra M.D. Hart & Aaron J. Sojourner, 2015. "Unionization and Productivity: Evidence from Charter Schools," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 422-448, July.
    8. Eric Brunner & Joshua Hyman & Andrew Ju, 2020. "School Finance Reforms, Teachers' Unions, and the Allocation of School Resources," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(3), pages 473-489, July.
    9. Laussel, Didier & van Ypersele, Tanguy, 2012. "When the squeakiest wheel gets the most oil: Exploiting one's nuisance power," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1593-1606.
    10. Jan K. Brueckner & David Neumark, 2014. "Beaches, Sunshine, and Public Sector Pay: Theory and Evidence on Amenities and Rent Extraction by Government Workers," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 198-230, May.
    11. Brunner, Eric J. & Squires, Tim, 2013. "The bargaining power of teachers’ unions and the allocation of school resources," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 15-27.
    12. Cowen, Joshua M. & Strunk, Katharine O., 2015. "The impact of teachers’ unions on educational outcomes: What we know and what we need to learn," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 208-223.
    13. Lott, Johnathan & Kenny, Lawrence W., 2013. "State teacher union strength and student achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 93-103.
    14. Cook, Jason & Lavertu, Stéphane & Miller, Corbin, 2021. "Rent-Seeking through collective bargaining: Teachers unions and education production☆," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

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