Unions and the Employment Growth: Panel Data Evidence

Wooden, Mark; Hawke, Anne

doi:10.1111/0019-8676.00154

Cited by 34 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(35 reference statements)

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“…However, as Wooden and Hawke (2000) point out, there are at least two counterarguments to the contention that unions necessarily reduce employment growth. First, if unions can improve worker productivity, by helping to create a more stable work force, or by providing a mechanism for employee voice, then this may offset the additional costs imposed by the union wage premium (Freeman and Medoff, 1984).…”

Section: Counterarguments To the Union Employment Suppression Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, if unions bargain over both wages and employment simultaneously, then it is possible that unions may 'purchase' higher employment levels with other concessions, such as a reduction in the size of the union wage premium (Wooden and Hawke, 2000). However, in examining the two main dimensions of union success-union wage premium and union employment- Pencavel (2009) has found that unions in the United States and Canada have been declining in success on both dimensions.…”

Section: Counterarguments To the Union Employment Suppression Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is the Union Employment Suppression Effect Diminishing? Further Evidence from Canada

Walsworth

Long

2012

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Résumé de l'article RésuméQue les syndicats aient contribué à supprimer la croissance de l'emploi dans les entreprises où ils étaient présents s'est révélée une observation tellement omniprésente qu'on a surnommé ce phénomène « la constante » dans la recherche en relations industrielles (Addison et Belfield, 2004). Toutefois, tous les résultats empiriques sur lesquels cette conclusion repose découlent de données colligées en 1998 ou avant, tandis que les résultats pour le Canada (Long, 1993) remontent à plus de vingt-cinq ans. Tenant compte de cela, Walsworth (2010a) a utilisé les données de l'enquête de Statistique Canada sur le milieu de travail et les employés (EMTE) couvrant la période 1999-2005 pour étudier la plus récente ampleur de l'effet de suppression d'emplois au Canada. L'auteur a observé, comparativement aux résultats obtenus par Long (1993), que l'effet de la baisse de l'emploi syndiqué avait apparemment ralenti. Nous notons toutefois que l'analyse de Walsworth (2010a) n'est pas comparable à celle menée par Long (1993) à plusieurs égards. Par exemple, Walsworth (2010a) ne ventile pas son analyse selon la taille des établissements, ni selon le secteur industriel. De plus, il n'a pas cherché à expliquer les raisons du ralentissement possible de l'effet de baisse de l'emploi syndiqué, une lacune que nous cherchons à combler en examinant deux facteurs potentiellement associés à un tel ralentissement, soit la croissance des gains d'emploi et l'avantage salarial des travailleurs syndiqués.Pour ce faire, nous avons analysé les données de l'EMTE couvrant la période et, comme Long (1993, nous avons observé d'importantes différences lorsque nous avons ventilé nos données pour fins d'analyse selon la taille des établissements, l'effet de la baisse de l'emploi syndiqué apparaissant dans les grands établissements manufacturiers mais pas dans les plus petits. Toutefois, contrairement à Long (2003), nous avons observé d'importantes différences entre le secteur manufacturier et celui des services avec l'absence d'un effet de baisse d'emploi syndiqué parmi les grands établissements de service, et un effet syndical significativement positif sur la croissance de l'emploi dans les établissements de service de plus petite taille -la première observation d'un effet positif de croissance de l'emploi syndiqué dans quelque contexte que ce soit. Notre analyse suggère qu'un déclin de l'avantage salarial des syndiqués peut avoir joué un rôle dans ces résultats. . to facilitate comparability with earlier canadian results, we segment our analysis by industrial sector and establishment size, and find that unions suppress employment growth only in larger manufacturing establishments, and actually seem to promote employment growth among smaller service sector establishments. these results differ substantially from results found twenty-one years previously. We extend previous analysis by examining whether a declining union wage premium may have played a role in these results, and find suggestive evidence for such a contention.

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Section: Counterarguments To the Union Employment Suppression Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Counterarguments To the Union Employment Suppression Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the Union Employment Suppression Effect Diminishing? Further Evidence from Canada

Walsworth

Long

2012

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“…This could increase productivity by reducing turnover, enhancing incentives to invest in training, improving communication flows and increasing employee morale. A second claim is that if unions and employers bargain over both wages and employment, instead of wages alone, then efficient outcomes are likely to lie on the demand curve (Hall and Lilien, 1979), and the effects of unions on employment outcomes will be ambiguous (Wooden and Hawke, 2000).…”

Section: Unions and (Other) Key Firm Outcomes: An Empirical Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Do Unions Do to Innovation? An Empirical Examination of the Canadian Private Sector

Walsworth¹

2011

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This article uses Canadian national data to examine the union effect on product innovation, a firm outcome which is widely researched in the management literature but has been less prominent in Industrial Relations scholarship. Using a longitudinal sample from the employer survey of the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey, the union effect on a firm’s ability to create or improve a product is examined. According to the commonly held view that unions impede firm performance, the results should point to a negative relationship between unions and product innovation. Interestingly, a strong negative effect is not observed. In fact a small statistically significant positive union effect is reported. This result is considered to be robust. Across various specifications the presence of a union and the intensity of the presence (firm union density) have significant and positive effects on a firm’s ability to innovate new products over a seven year period (1999-2005).The results of this study do not imply that the presence of a union is an important determinant of product innovation. The results are noteworthy because they do not identify a negative relationship between unions and a measure of firm performance: product innovation. In this regard, the results give weight to the observation that there is very little empirical support for the popular argument that unions impede firm performance.In Canada the demise of organized labour is often justified as a necessary adjustment to increasingly competitive markets. Indeed the signing of the 1993 NAFTA has put unions under greater scrutiny for their impact on Canada’s ability to compete internationally. That unions make firms less competitive is commonly accepted as a reasonable assessment. The results of this study and a review of the empirical literature on the union effect on other key firm outcomes such as productivity, labour costs, employment growth, sales and profitability, suggest that the popularly held negative assessment of unions is not based on a conclusive body of literature.Cet article utilise des données nationales canadiennes pour examiner l’effet des syndicats en matière d’innovation en matière de produits dans les entreprises, sujet abondamment traité dans la littérature managériale mais moins présent dans les travaux empiriques en relations industrielles. À partir d’un échantillon longitudinal de la composante « employeur » de l’Enquête sur le milieu de travail et les employés (EMTE) de Statistique Canada, l’effet de la présence syndicale sur la capacité de l’entreprise à créer de nouveaux produits ou à améliorer ses produits déjà existants est étudié. Selon un point de vue communément admis à l’effet que les syndicats agiraient plutôt comme un frein sur la performance de l’entreprise, les résultats de l’étude devraient indiquer une relation négative entre la présence syndicale et l’innovation en matière de produit. Or l’étude ne révèle aucun lien négatif fort. Au mieux seul un faible lien positif est observable d’un point de vue statistique. Et ce résu...

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“…There is a growing body of evidence that employment growth rates are lower in the union sector, suggesting (2) or (3). The evidence is for the United States (Leonard, 1992), Canada (Long, 1993), and Australia (Wooden and Hawke, 2000) and Britain (Blanchflower et al, 1991;Bryson, 2001). However, Freeman and Kleiner (1999) and DiNardo and Lee (2001) find no clear link between unionization and closure.…”

Section: Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What effect do unions have on wages now and would freeman and medoff be surprised?

2004

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Unions and the Employment Growth: Panel Data Evidence

Cited by 34 publications

References 29 publications

Is the Union Employment Suppression Effect Diminishing? Further Evidence from Canada

Is the Union Employment Suppression Effect Diminishing? Further Evidence from Canada

What Do Unions Do to Innovation? An Empirical Examination of the Canadian Private Sector

What effect do unions have on wages now and would freeman and medoff be surprised?

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