IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2401.05183.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Can unions impose costs on employers in education strikes? Evidence from pension disputes in UK universities

Author

Listed:
  • Nils Braakmann
  • Barbara Eberth

Abstract

The impact of strikes in educational institutions, specifically universities, on employers remains understudied. This paper investigates the impact of education strikes in UK universities from 2018 to 2022, primarily due to pension disputes. Using data from the Guardian University Guide and the 2014 and 2021 Research Excellence Frameworks and leveraging difference-in-differences and regression discontinuity approaches, our findings suggest significant declines in several student related outcomes, such as student satisfaction, and a more mixed picture for student attainment and research performance. These results highlight the substantial, albeit indirect, cost unions can impose on university employers during strikes.

Suggested Citation

  • Nils Braakmann & Barbara Eberth, 2024. "Can unions impose costs on employers in education strikes? Evidence from pension disputes in UK universities," Papers 2401.05183, arXiv.org.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2401.05183
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2401.05183
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Max H. Farrell, 2018. "On the Effect of Bias Estimation on Coverage Accuracy in Nonparametric Inference," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 113(522), pages 767-779, April.
    2. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Susan Athey & David A. Hirshberg & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2021. "Synthetic Difference-in-Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(12), pages 4088-4118, December.
    3. Richard B. Freeman, 1980. "The Exit-Voice Tradeoff in the Labor Market: Unionism, Job Tenure, Quits, and Separations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(4), pages 643-673.
    4. Arnaud Chevalier & Xiaoxuan Jia, 2016. "Subject-Specific League Tables and Students' Application Decisions," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 84(5), pages 600-620, September.
    5. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D Cattaneo & Max H Farrell, 2020. "Optimal bandwidth choice for robust bias-corrected inference in regression discontinuity designs," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 23(2), pages 192-210.
    6. Richard B. Freeman, 1980. "The Exit-Voice Tradeoff in the Labor Market: Unionism, Job Tenure, Quits," NBER Working Papers 0242, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    8. Jaume, David & Willén, Alexander, 2021. "The effect of teacher strikes on parents," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    9. Keith A. Bender & Peter J. Sloane, 1998. "Job Satisfaction, Trade Unions, and Exit-Voice Revisited," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(2), pages 222-240, January.
    10. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2010. "Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 493-505.
    11. John DiNardo & David S. Lee, 2004. "Economic Impacts of New Unionization on Private Sector Employers: 1984–2001," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(4), pages 1383-1441.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Artz, Benjamin & Blanchflower, David G. & Bryson, Alex, 2022. "Unions increase job satisfaction in the United States," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 173-188.
    2. Di, Wenhua & Pattison, Nathaniel, 2023. "Industry Specialization and Small Business Lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    3. Jirjahn Uwe & Tsertsvadze Georgi, 2006. "Betriebsräte und Arbeitszufriedenheit / Works Councils and Job Satisfaction," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 226(5), pages 537-561, October.
    4. Eli Ben‐Michael & Avi Feller & Jesse Rothstein, 2022. "Synthetic controls with staggered adoption," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 84(2), pages 351-381, April.
    5. Athey, Susan & Imbens, Guido W., 2022. "Design-based analysis in Difference-In-Differences settings with staggered adoption," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 226(1), pages 62-79.
    6. Monojit Chatterji, 2000. "Trade Union Power and Economic Efficiency," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 108, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    7. Enzo Brox & Riccardo Di Francesco, 2024. "The Cost of Coming Out," Papers 2403.03649, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    8. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Guido Imbens, 2023. "Causal Models for Longitudinal and Panel Data: A Survey," Papers 2311.15458, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    9. Panos, Georgios & Theodossiou, Ioannis, 2009. "Union Mediation and Adaptation to Reciprocal Loyalty Arrangements," MPRA Paper 15471, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Roth, Jonathan & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Bilinski, Alyssa & Poe, John, 2023. "What’s trending in difference-in-differences? A synthesis of the recent econometrics literature," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2218-2244.
    11. Christian Aleman & Christopher Busch & Alexander Ludwig & Raul Santaeulalia-Llopis, 2022. "A Stage-Based Identification of Policy Effects," PIER Working Paper Archive 22-026, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    12. Myungkou Shin, 2022. "Finitely Heterogeneous Treatment Effect in Event-study," Papers 2204.02346, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.
    13. David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson, 2020. "Now Unions Increase Job Satisfaction and Well-being," NBER Working Papers 27720, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. John T. Addison & Clive R. Belfield, 2004. "Union Voice," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 25(4), pages 563-596, October.
    15. Callaway, Brantly & Karami, Sonia, 2023. "Treatment effects in interactive fixed effects models with a small number of time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(1), pages 184-208.
    16. Dor Leventer & Daniel Nevo, 2024. "Correcting invalid regression discontinuity designs with multiple time period data," Papers 2408.05847, arXiv.org.
    17. repec:ags:aaea22:335971 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson, 2020. "Job satisfaction over the life course," DoQSS Working Papers 20-20, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    19. Carter, Colin A. & Steinbach, Sandro & Zhuang, Xiting, 2022. "Global Shipping Container Disruptions and U.S. Agricultural Exports," Working Papers 320397, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    20. Apel, Johannes & Rohde, Niklas & Marcus, Jan, 2023. "The effect of a nighttime curfew on the spread of COVID-19," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    21. Chiara Paola Donegani & Stephen McKay, 2012. "Is there a paradox of lower job satisfaction among trade union members? European evidence," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 18(4), pages 471-489, November.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:arx:papers:2401.05183. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.