IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tra/jlabre/v23y2002i1p105-130.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Economic Effects of Labor Unions Revisited

Author

Listed:
  • RICHARD VEDDER
  • LOWELL GALLAWAY

Abstract

Using a variety of statistical techniques, we conclude that labor unions have reduced U.S. output by significant amounts -- trillions of dollars over time. Additionally, the employment-population ratio and the unemployment rate have been adversely affected by the presence of unions. From the very beginning, unionization materially lowered employment in the auto and steel industries, and union militancy in coal mining has contributed importantly to largely eliminating employment in this once large industry. While some individual workers have profited from unions, the aggregate economic impact is strongly negative.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Vedder & Lowell Gallaway, 2002. "The Economic Effects of Labor Unions Revisited," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 23(1), pages 105-130, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:tra:jlabre:v:23:y:2002:i:1:p:105-130
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://transactionpub.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=FY1M563JA9XTC3PX
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Doh-Khul Kim, 2005. "Unionization, Unemployment, and Growth in Korea: A Cointegration Approach," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 33(2), pages 225-233, June.
    2. Chen, Tsung-Kang & Chen, Yan-Shing & Liao, Hsien-Hsing, 2011. "Labor unions, bargaining power and corporate bond yield spreads: Structural credit model perspectives," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 2084-2098, August.
    3. K. Praveen Parboteeah & John B. Cullen, 2003. "Social Institutions and Work Centrality: Explorations Beyond National Culture," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 137-148, April.
    4. Steve Fleetwood, 2007. "Austrian economics and the analysis of labor markets," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 20(4), pages 247-267, December.
    5. Jack Kleinhenz & Russ Smith, 2011. "Regional Competitiveness: Labor-Management Relations, Workplace Practices, and Workforce Quality," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 46(2), pages 111-124, April.
    6. Bhattacharyya, Chandril & Ranjan Gupta, Manash, 2021. "Unionised labour market, environment and endogenous growth," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 29-44.
    7. Brenda U. Palma & Vilma Ramos & Rosemarie R. Casimiro & Arneil G. Gabriel, 2019. "Harmony in Educational Institution: Management-Employee Union’s Shared Responsibility," Journal of Public Administration and Governance, Macrothink Institute, vol. 9(1), pages 148-167, March.
    8. Gose, Karina & Sadrieh, Abdolkarim, 2014. "Strike, coordination, and dismissal in uniform wage settings," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 145-158.
    9. Chen, I-Ju & Chen, Yan-Shing & Chen, Sheng-Syan, 2018. "The strategic choice of payment method in corporate acquisitions: The role of collective bargaining against unionized workers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 408-422.
    10. Bui, Dien Giau & Chen, Yan-Shing & Hsu, Hsing-Hua & Lin, Chih-Yung, 2020. "Labor unions and bank risk culture: evidence from the financial crisis," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).

    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:tra:jlabre:v:23:y:2002:i:1:p:105-130. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://transactionpub.metapress.com/link.asp?target=journal&id=110581 .

    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.