WHO DO UNIONS TARGET? UNIONIZATION OVER THE LIFE-CYCLE OF U.S. BUSINESSES

Emin Dinlersoz, Jeremy Greenwood and Henry Hyatt

Working Papers from U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies

Abstract: What type of businesses do unions target for organizing and when? A dynamic model of the union organizing process is constructed to answer this question. A union monitors establishments in an industry to learn about their productivity, and decides which ones to organize and when. An establishment becomes unionized if the union targets it for organizing and wins the union certification election. The model predicts two main selection effects: unions target larger and more productive establishments early in their life-cycles, and among the establishments targeted, unions are more likely to win elections in smaller and less productive ones. These predictions find support in union certification elections data for 1977-2007 matched with data on establishment characteristics.

Keywords: Unionization; Union Organizing; Union Certification Election; Diffusion of Unionization; Bayesian Learning; Productivity. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D21 D24 J5 J50 J51 L11 L23 L25 L6 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 84 pages
Date: 2014-02, Revised 2014-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec and nep-cdm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2014/CES-WP-14-09R.pdf Revised version, 2014 (application/pdf)
https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2014/CES-WP-14-09.pdf First version, 2014 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Who Do Unions Target? Unionization over the Life-Cycle of U.S. Businesses (2014)
Working Paper: Who do Unions Target? Unionization over the Life-Cycle of U.S. Businesses (2014)
Working Paper: Who do Unions Target? Unionization over the Life-Cycle of U.S. Businesses (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cen:wpaper:14-09

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