IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/2254.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Unions and Efficiency in Private Sector Construction: Further Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Steven G. Allen

Abstract

Previous studies using micro data to estimate the impact of unions on productivity in construction in the early 1970's have found productivity to be higher for union than nonunion contractors in the private sector. The validity of these studies has been questioned in light of the declining market share of union contractors. This study re-examines union-nonunion productivity differences over a sample of retail stores and shopping centers built in the late 1970's. It finds that square footage put in place per hour is 51 percent greater for union than nonunion contractors. Lacking data on wage rates by occupation, the impact of unions on efficiency can be gauged only by looking at how unions affect costs, profit rates, and prices. This study finds no mean cost per square foot difference between union and nonunion contractors and offers mixed econometric evidence on translog cost functions. There is no difference in profit rates or prices between union and nonunion contractors in this sample.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven G. Allen, 1987. "Unions and Efficiency in Private Sector Construction: Further Evidence," NBER Working Papers 2254, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2254
    Note: LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w2254.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Allen, Steven G, 1985. "Why Construction Industry Productivity Is Declining," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(4), pages 661-669, November.
    2. Christensen, Laurits R & Greene, William H, 1976. "Economies of Scale in U.S. Electric Power Generation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages 655-676, August.
    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. Obare, G. A. & Omamo, S. W. & Williams, J. C., 2003. "Smallholder production structure and rural roads in Africa: the case of Nakuru District, Kenya," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 245-254, May.
    2. Tung Liu, 2020. "Measuring Technical, Allocative inefficiency, and Cost Inefficiency by Applying Duality Theory," Working Papers 202001, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2020.
    3. Krasachat, W., 2000. "Production Structure and Technical Change in Thai Agriculture, 1972-1994," 2000 Conference (44th), January 23-25, 2000, Sydney, Australia 123688, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    4. Considine, Timothy J. & Larson, Donald F., 2006. "The environment as a factor of production," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 645-662, November.
    5. AZOMAHOU, Théophile & BOUCEKKINE, Raouf & NGUYEN-VAN, Phu, 2009. "Promoting clean technologies under imperfect competition," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2009011, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    6. Oh, Dong-hyun, 2015. "Productivity growth, technical change and economies of scale of Korean fossil-fuel generation companies, 2001–2012: A dual approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 113-121.
    7. Marvin E. Dodson & Thomas A. Garrett, 2004. "Inefficient Education Spending in Public School Districts: A Case for Consolidation?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 22(2), pages 270-280, April.
    8. Theodore Panagiotidis & Georgios Papapanagiotou, 2024. "A note on the determinants of NFTs returns," Working Paper series 24-07, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    9. James B. Bushnell & Catherine Wolfram, 2009. "The Guy at the Controls: Labor Quality and Power Plant Efficiency," NBER Chapters, in: International Differences in the Business Practices and Productivity of Firms, pages 79-102, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Schmit, Todd M. & Boisvert, Richard N., 1997. "A Hedonic Approach To Estimating Operation And Maintenance Costs For New York Municipal Water Systems," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 26(2), pages 1-12, October.
    11. Offutt, Susan & Shoemaker, Robbin, 1989. "Distribution of Domestic Policy Benefits and the Willingness to Support Trade Liberalization," 1989 Occasional Paper Series No. 5 197669, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Lila J. Truett & Dale B. Truett, 2003. "The Italian Automotive Industry and Economies of Scale," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 21(3), pages 329-337, July.
    13. Odolinski, Kristofer & Smith, Andrew & Wheat, Phill & Nilsson, Jan-Eric & Dheilly, Clement, 2023. "Damage or no damage from traffic: Re-examining marginal cost pricing for rail signalling maintenance," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 13-21.
    14. repec:wvu:wpaper:10-09 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Del Bono, Emilia & Kinsler, Josh & Pavan, Ronni, 2020. "A Note on the Importance of Normalizations in Dynamic Latent Factor Models of Skill Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 13714, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Austan Goolsbee & Chad Syverson, 2022. "The Strange and Awful Path of Productivity in the US Construction Sector," NBER Chapters, in: Technology, Productivity, and Economic Growth, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Vítor Marques & Isabel Soares & Adelino Fortunato, 2012. "Application of a Structural Model to the Spanish Electricity Wholesale Market," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 65-108.
    18. Crawford, Gregory S. & Crespo, Joseph & Tauchen, Helen, 2007. "Bidding asymmetries in multi-unit auctions: Implications of bid function equilibria in the British spot market for electricity," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 1233-1268, December.
    19. Tommaso Agasisti & Sabine Gralka, 2019. "The transient and persistent efficiency of Italian and German universities: a stochastic frontier analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(46), pages 5012-5030, October.
    20. Sabine Gralka, 2018. "Persistent inefficiency in the higher education sector: evidence from Germany," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 373-392, July.
    21. Wang, Yuhan & Novan, Kevin, 2024. "Beyond Access: How Does Electricity Quality Affect the Adoption of Energy-Consuming Appliances?," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 343621, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    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:2254. 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.