Using both a new data set of labor union appearances in congressional hearings and archival data on union organizational resources, this article analyzes factors that determine whether a labor union will be represented in congressional hearing testimony in a given year. Consistent with the expectations of resource mobilization theory, organizational resources are important predictors of participation in congressional hearings. For example, membership is an important predictor of testimony in hearings, as is the number of lobbyists on staff and the character of a union's primary industry. However, membership in the AFL-CIO federation is negatively related to hearing participation, and some of the benefits of having a large membership base may be diminishing over time. Implications for the study of interest group politics and organizational political strategies are discussed.
Professional certification programmes became commonplace across the occupational structure in recent years, with many emerging and established professions opting to create their own certification programmes for reasons ranging from collective marketing to reducing malpractice litigation risk. Theories of social closure suggest that advantaged and established individual practitioners might want to use certification as a means of distinguishing themselves and enacting barriers to entry, though research on credentials and signalling theory leads to the expectation that certification is most valued by less secure and younger workers seeking to establish themselves in a profession. We use a survey of employment arbitrators as a case study in the dynamics of who supports certification, finding a surprisingly low overall level of support for certification. Arbitrators who are female, racial minorities and those who earn lower hourly rates are most supportive of creating and earning certification, suggesting that the most natural constituency for a new certification programme may be those looking to 'break in' to a profession rather than those already well established in their practice.
The authors examine the relationship between entrepreneurship and occupational licensure using data on the universe of more than 700,000 tax preparers in the United States. Prior research suggests that occupational licensure has negative effects on entrepreneurship because it increases the costs of operating a business. By contrast, the authors argue that licensure may allow entrepreneurs to signal quality and enhance their legitimacy. States that require tax preparers to be licensed have higher average rates of entrepreneurship—approximated by tax practice ownership—and, in high-income ZIP codes, more demand for paid preparer services. In the analysis of the introduction of a federal license requirement in tax preparation in 2013, voluntary early adoption of the license by preparers predicts higher chances of survival in the industry. Entrepreneurs are less likely to adopt the license early than are non-entrepreneurs, unless they lack other state-level credentials. Results thus suggest that licensure represents a trade-off for entrepreneurs between the costs of obtaining a license and the benefits of signaling quality and legitimacy.
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