Overview

Richard B. Freeman and James L. Medoff’s now classic 1984 book What Do Unions Do? stimulated an enormous theoretical and empirical literature on the economic impact of trade unions. Trade unions continue to be a significant feature of many labor markets, particularly in developing countries, and issues of labor market regulations and labor institutions remain critically important to researchers and policy makers. The relations between unions and management can range between cooperation and conflict; unions have powerful offsetting wage and non-wage effects that economists and other social scientists have long debated. Do the benefits of unionism exceed the costs to the economy and society writ large, or do the costs exceed the benefits? The Economics of Trade Unions offers the first comprehensive review, analysis and evaluation of the empirical literature on the microeconomic effects of trade unions using the tools of meta-regression analysis to identify and quantify the economic impact of trade unions, as well as to correct research design faults, the effects of selection bias and model misspecification. This volume makes use of a unique dataset of hundreds of empirical studies and their reported estimates of the microeconomic impact of trade unions. Written by three authors who have been at the forefront of this research field (including the co-author of the original volume, What Do Unions Do?), this book offers an overview of a subject that is of huge importance to scholars of labor economics, industrial and employee relations, and human resource management, as well as those with an interest in meta-analysis.

Full Product Details

Author:   Hristos Doucouliagos ,  Richard B. Freeman (Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) ,  Patrice Laroche
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9780367667894

ISBN 10:   0367667894
Pages:   190
Publication Date:   30 September 2020
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: why study studies of unionism? Meta-analysis as arbiter in debates Structure of the book 1 A bibliometric analysis of What Do Unions Do? Freeman and Medoff’s research agenda Approach and data Analysis Summary 2 Research synthesis through meta-regression analysis The core challenge of inference Collecting and coding meta-data Effect size Meta-averages Multiple meta-regression analysis Summary 3 Unions and productivity: direct estimates Unions and productivity levels Unions and productivity in manufacturing industries Unions and productivity in other industries Summary 4 Unions and productivity growth Unions and productivity growth: new data for an old issue Summary 5 Unions and productivity: investment channels Unions and physical capital investment Unions and investment in intangible capital Summary 6 Unions and productivity: employee behavior channels Unions and employee turnover Unions and job satisfaction Unions and organizational commitment Summary 7 Unions and financial performance of firms Unions and profits Summary 8 Summary and conclusions Findings on union effects Measured and unmeasured artifacts in research of union effects Challenges for future research and policy

Reviews

'...generally helpful scene-setting remarks anchor each chapter, and the authors are evenhanded throughout in their discussion of the literature.' John T. Addison, Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, and Department of Economics and Finance, Durham University Business School (UK), and Research Fellow, IZA Bonn

Author Information

Hristos Doucouliagos is Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, and the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Australia. Richard B. Freeman holds the Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University. He directs the National Bureau of Economic Research/Science Engineering Workforce Projects and is Senior Research Fellow in Labour Markets at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance, UK. Patrice Laroche is Professor of Human Resource Management and Labor Relations at the ISAM-IAE Nancy (Université de Lorraine) and at the ESCP Europe Business School, France.

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