IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/0242.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Exit-Voice Tradeoff in the Labor Market: Unionism, Job Tenure, Quits

Author

Listed:
  • Richard B. Freeman

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of trade unionism on the exit behavior of workers in the context of Hirschman's exit-voice dichotomy. Unionism is expected to reduce quits and permanent separations and raise job tenure by providing a "voice" alternative to exit when workers are dissatisfied with conditions. Empirical evidence supports this contention, showing significantly lower exit for unionists in several large data tapes. It is argued that the grievance system plays a major role in the reduction in exit and that the reduction lowers cost and raises productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0242
    Note: LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w0242.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Medoff, James L, 1979. "Layoffs and Alternatives under Trade Unions in U.S. Manufacturing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(3), pages 380-395, June.
    2. Kahn, Lawrence M, 1977. "Union Impact: A Reduced Form Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 59(4), pages 503-507, November.
    3. Freeman, Richard B, 1976. "Individual Mobility and Union Voice in the Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(2), pages 361-368, May.
    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. Richard B. Freeman & James L. Medoff, 1982. "The Impact of Collective Bargaining: Can the New Facts Be Explained by Monopoly Unionism?," NBER Working Papers 0837, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Kim B. Clark & Lawrence H. Summers, 1982. "Labour Force Participation: Timing and Persistence," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(5), pages 825-844.
    3. Kochan, Thomas A. & Helfman, David E., 1981. "The effects of collective bargaining on economic and behavioral job outcomes," Working papers 1181-81., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    4. Uwe JIRJAHN & Stephen C. SMITH, 2018. "Nonunion Employee Representation: Theory And The German Experience With Mandated Works Councils," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(1), pages 201-233, March.
    5. Uwe Jirjahn & Jens Mohrenweiser & Stephen C Smith, 2022. "Works councils and workplace health promotion in Germany," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(3), pages 1059-1094, August.
    6. Richard B. Freeman, 1985. "Unions, Pensions, and Union Pension Funds," NBER Chapters, in: Pensions, Labor, and Individual Choice, pages 89-122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Richard B. Freeman, 1978. "The Effect of Trade Unionism on Fringe Benefits," NBER Working Papers 0292, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:1039-1089 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. 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.
    10. Goerke, Laszlo & Pannenberg, Markus, 2011. "Trade union membership and dismissals," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 810-821.
    11. Uwe Jirjahn & Johannes Kiess, 2024. "Does Employee Representation Foster Workplace Democracy?," Research Papers in Economics 2024-13, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    12. J. David Brown & John S. Earle, "undated". "The Reallocation of Workers and Jobs in Russian Industry: New Evidence on Measures and Determinants," Upjohn Working Papers jse20031, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    13. repec:ilr:articl:v:65:y:2012:i:2:p:263-285 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Takashi Shimizu, 2017. "Cheap talk with an exit option: a model of exit and voice," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 46(4), pages 1071-1088, November.
    15. Addison, John T. & Teixeira, Paulino, 2019. "Strikes, employee workplace representation, unionism, and industrial relations quality in European establishments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 109-133.
    16. Steven G. Allen, 1988. "Unions and Job Security in the Public Sector," NBER Chapters, in: When Public Sector Workers Unionize, pages 271-304, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Joshua S. Gans & Avi Goldfarb & Mara Lederman, 2021. "Exit, Tweets, and Loyalty," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 68-112, May.
    18. Henry S. Farber, 1984. "The Analysis of Union Behavior," NBER Working Papers 1502, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Ben S. Bernanke & James Powell, 1986. "The Cyclical Behavior of Industrial Labor Markets: A Comparison of the Prewar and Postwar Eras," NBER Chapters, in: The American Business Cycle: Continuity and Change, pages 583-638, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Vahabi, Mehrdad, 2005. "Destructive power, enforcement and institutional change," MPRA Paper 13236, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jan 2006.
    21. Freeman, Richard B, 1978. "Job Satisfaction as an Economic Variable," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(2), pages 135-141, May.
    22. Addison, John T. & Teixeira, Paulino & Evers, Katalin & Bellmann, Lutz, 2013. "Collective Bargaining and Innovation in Germany: Cooperative Industrial Relations?," IZA Discussion Papers 7871, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    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:nbr:nberwo:0242. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.