Year: 1987
Type: report
Abstract: This paper examines how unions affect the rate of productivity change over time.The direction of union impact cannot be predicted from economic theory.Firms may tend to select more productive technologies to offset the cost of higher union wages or they may tend to select less productive technologies to keep union wage demands in line.Evidence from manufacturing indicates that unions have not affected productivity growth, but in the construction industry productivity growth has been much slower in areas where there is a high initial level of unionization or where unionization is growing.
DOI: 10.3386/w2304
Author: Steven Allen
Institutions: North Carolina State University, University of Chicago
Language: English
Topic: Labor Movements and Unions
Subfield: Public Administration
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2234043841