Impacts of Unionization on Employment, Product Quality and Productivity: Regression Discontinuity Evidence From Nursing Homes

Aaron Sojourner, Robert Town, David C. Grabowski and Michelle M. Chen

No 17733, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper studies the effects of nursing home unionization on numerous labor, establishment, and consumer outcomes using a regression discontinuity design. We find negative effects of unionization on staffing levels and no decline in care quality, suggesting positive labor productivity effects. Some evidence suggests that nursing homes in less competitive local product markets and those with lower union density at the time of election experienced stronger union employment effects. Unionization appears to raise wages for a given worker while also shifting the composition of the workforce away from higher-earning workers. By combining credible identification of union effects, a comprehensive set of outcomes over time with measures of market-level characteristics, this study generates some of the best evidence available on many controversial questions in the economics of unions. Furthermore, it generates evidence from the service sector, which has grown in importance and where evidence has been thin.

JEL-codes: I12 J51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
Note: EH LS
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published as Aaron J. Sojourner & Brigham R. Frandsen & Robert J. Town & David C. Grabowski & Min M. Chen, 2015. "Impacts of Unionization on Quality and Productivity," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 68(4), pages 771-806, August.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w17733.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Impacts of Unionization on Quality and Productivity (2015)
Working Paper: Impacts of Unionization on Quality and Productivity: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Nursing Homes (2014)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17733

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w17733

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().