IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/2399.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Contraction and Expansion: The Divergence of Private Sector and Public Sector Unionism in tht U.S

Author

Listed:
  • Richard B. Freeman

Abstract

This paper contrasts the differing experience of public sector unionism, which has expanded in the United States, and private sector unionism, which has contracted, in the past several decades. It uses the experience of other countries, particularly Canada, to rule out some explanations of the divergent trends. The paper finds that the major reason for the private sector decline is increased management opposition to union organization, motivated in part by profit-seeking behavior, and augmented by trade union responses; and that the major reason for the public sector union expansion is decreased market opposition due to pas- sage of comprehensive collective bargaining laws and motivated in part by vote-seeking behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard B. Freeman, 1987. "Contraction and Expansion: The Divergence of Private Sector and Public Sector Unionism in tht U.S," NBER Working Papers 2399, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2399
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w2399.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Freeman, Richard B, 1986. "The Effect of the Union Wage Differential on Management Opposition and Union Organizing Success," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 92-96, May.
    2. Neumann, George R & Rissman, Ellen R, 1984. "Where Have All the Union Members Gone?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(2), pages 175-192, April.
    3. Freeman, Richard B, 1986. "Unionism Comes to the Public Sector," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 41-86, March.
    4. Farber, Henry S & Saks, Daniel H, 1980. "Why Workers Want Unions: The Role of Relative Wages and Job Characteristics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(2), pages 349-369, April.
    5. John J. Lawler, 1984. "The Influence of Management Consultants on the Outcome of Union Certification Elections," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 38(1), pages 38-51, October.
    6. Brown, Charles & Medoff, James, 1989. "The Employer Size-Wage Effect," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1027-1059, October.
    7. Thomas A. Kochan & Robert B. McKersie & John Chalykoff, 1986. "The Effects of Corporate Strategy and Workplace Innovations on Union Representation," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 39(4), pages 487-501, July.
    8. Linneman, Peter & Wachter, Michael L, 1986. "Rising Union Premiums and the Declining Boundaries among Noncompeting Groups," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 103-108, May.
    9. Ellwood, David T & Fine, Glenn, 1987. "The Impact of Right-to-Work Laws on Union Organizing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(2), pages 250-273, April.
    10. John Drotning, 1967. "NLRB Remedies for Election Misconduct: An Analysis of Election Outcomes and Their Determinants," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40, pages 137-137.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Susan Johnson, "undated". "'Legal' versus 'Economic' factors in the growth and decline of unions: A stock-flow analysis of Canada and the US," Canadian International Labour Network Working Papers 44, McMaster University.

    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. Behroz Baraghoshi & Cihan Bilginsoy, 2013. "Interstate Variations in Private Sector Union Density in the U.S," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 180-202, June.
    2. Blanchflower, D. & Crouchley, R. & Estrin, S. & Oswald, A., 1990. "Unemployment And The Demand For Unions," Papers 372, London School of Economics - Centre for Labour Economics.
    3. Duplantis, Malcolm M. & Chandler, Timothy D. & Geske, Terry G., 1995. "The growth and impact of teachers' unions in states without collective bargaining legislation," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 167-178, June.
    4. Hirsch, Barry, 2013. "An Anatomy of Public Sector Unions," IZA Discussion Papers 7313, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Schnabel, Claus, 2002. "Determinants of trade union membership," Discussion Papers 15, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    6. Jeffrey S. Zax & Casey Ichniowski, 1991. "Excludability and the Effects of Free Riders: Right-To-Work Laws and Local Public Sector Unionization," Public Finance Review, , vol. 19(3), pages 293-315, July.
    7. Askenazy, Philippe & Breda, Thomas, 2020. "Electoral Democracy at Work," IZA Discussion Papers 13226, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Henry S. Farber, 2001. "Notes on the Economics of Labor Unions," Working Papers 831, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    9. Michael Wallace & Todd E Vachon & Allen Hyde, 2022. "Two roads diverged: Legal context and changing levels of private and public sector union density in the US states, 1984–2019," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(4), pages 1539-1563, November.
    10. Gary Solon, 1986. "Bias in Longitudinal Estimation of Wage Gaps," NBER Technical Working Papers 0058, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. G L Clark & K Johnston, 1987. "The Geography of US Union Elections 1: The Crisis of US Unions and a Critical Review of the Literature," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 19(1), pages 33-57, January.
    12. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger, 1996. "Employer Size and the Wage Structure in U.S. Manufacturing," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 41-42, pages 323-367.
    13. Blanchflower, David G., 2006. "A Cross-Country Study of Union Membership," IZA Discussion Papers 2016, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Henry S. Farber, 2001. "Notes on the Economics of Labor Unions," Working Papers 831, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    15. Ruiz-Verdú, Pablo, 2002. "Employer behavior when workers can unionize," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB wb020803, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    16. Robin Naylor, 1995. "Unions in Decline?," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 22, pages 127-142.
    17. Jack Fiorito & Cheryl L. Maranto, 1987. "The Contemporary Decline Of Union Strength," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 5(4), pages 12-27, October.
    18. Kelly D. Edmiston, 2007. "The role of small and large businesses in economic development," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 92(Q II), pages 73-97.
    19. Mahmood Araï & Gérard Ballot & Ali Skalli, 1996. "Différentiels intersectoriels de salaire et caractéristiques des employeurs en France," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 299(1), pages 37-58.
    20. Terry M. Moe, 2009. "Collective Bargaining and The Performance of the Public Schools," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(1), pages 156-174, January.

    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:2399. 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.