IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v62y2009i2p147-156.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Successful Have Trade Unions Been? A Utility-Based Indicator of Union Well-Being

Author

Listed:
  • John Pencavel

Abstract

Can conventional economic analysis help in defining and measuring the success of labor unions? In this paper, a general indicator of union welfare is proposed and particular expressions for the wage and employment objectives of unions are rearranged to derive measures of union success or welfare. These indicators combine two measures: union density and the relative union-nonunion wage gap. The indicators are applied to describe the movement of union welfare in the United States over the past eighty years, the differences in union success among groups of U.S. workers, and the variation in union well-being across countries. The results suggest that U.S. unions' success peaked in the 1950s and 1960s; they have tended to benefit black workers, especially black men, more than other groups; and in recent decades a very low unionization rate has contributed to make them less successful, overall, than unions in other countries with similar labor markets.

Suggested Citation

  • John Pencavel, 2009. "How Successful Have Trade Unions Been? A Utility-Based Indicator of Union Well-Being," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 62(2), pages 147-156, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:62:y:2009:i:2:p:147-156
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390906200201
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001979390906200201
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/001979390906200201?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ashenfelter, Orley, 1972. "Racial Discrimination and Trade Unionism," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(3), pages 435-464, May-June.
    2. Layard, Richard & Nickell, Stephen & Jackman, Richard, 2005. "Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199279173, Decembrie.
    3. David Blanchflower, 1996. "The Role and Influence of Trade Unions in the OECD," CEP Discussion Papers dp0310, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Booth,Alison L., 1994. "The Economics of the Trade Union," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521468398, January.
    5. Brown, James N & Ashenfelter, Orley, 1986. "Testing the Efficiency of Employment Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 40-87, June.
    6. Oswald, Andrew J, 1985. " The Economic Theory of Trade Unions: An Introductory Survey," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(2), pages 160-193.
    7. Johnson, George E, 1985. " The Economic Theory of Trade Unions-An Introductory Survey: Comment," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(2), pages 194-196.
    8. C. Bowdler & L. Nunziata, 2007. "Trade Union Density and Inflation Performance: Evidence from OECD Panel Data," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(293), pages 135-159, February.
    9. Dertouzos, James N & Pencavel, John H, 1981. "Wage and Employment Determination under Trade Unionism: The International Typographical Union," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(6), pages 1162-1181, December.
    10. Farber, Henry S, 1978. "Individual Preferences and Union Wage Determination: The Case of the United Mine Workers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 923-942, October.
    11. John H. Pencavel & Catherine E. Hartsog, 1984. "A Reconsideration of the Effects of Unionism on Relative Wages and Employment in the United States, 1920-80," NBER Working Papers 1316, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Pencavel, John & Hartsog, Catherine E, 1984. "A Reconsideration of the Effects of Unionism on Relative Wages and Employment in the United States, 1920-1980," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(2), pages 193-232, April.
    13. Rees, Albert, 1989. "The Economics of Trade Unions," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226707105, September.
    14. Oswald, Andrew J, 1982. "The Microeconomic Theory of the Trade Union," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(367), pages 576-595, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hirsch, Boris & Schnabel, Claus, 2011. "Let's take bargaining models seriously: The decline in union power in Germany, 1992 - 2009," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 10/2011, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    2. Janelle Jones & John Schmitt, 2014. "Union Advantage for Black Workers," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2014-04, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    3. Boris Hirsch & Claus Schnabel, 2014. "What can we Learn from Bargaining Models about Union Power? The Decline in Union Power in Germany, 1992–2009," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 82(3), pages 347-362, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Goerke, Laszlo & Madsen, Jakob B., 2003. "Earnings-Related Unemployment Benefits in a Unionised Economy," IZA Discussion Papers 701, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:1039-1089 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:pri:indrel:dsp01cc08hf62w is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Stavros Drakopoulos & Ioannis Katselidis, 2014. "The Development of Trade Union Theory and Mainstream Economic Methodology," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(4), pages 1133-1149, December.
    5. Nicholas Lawson, 2011. "Is Collective Bargaining Pareto Efficient? A Survey of the Literature," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 282-304, September.
    6. M. Correa-López, 2006. "A model of unionized oligopoly in general equilibrium," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0605, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    7. Luciano Fanti, 2011. "When an efficient bargaining is more "efficient" than a competitive labour market," Discussion Papers 2011/131, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    8. Petrakis, Emmanuel & Vlassis, Minas, 2000. "Endogenous scope of bargaining in a union-oligopoly model: when will firms and unions bargain over employment?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 261-281, May.
    9. Adriana Cassoni, 1997. "A brief survey on the role of trade unions in labour market," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0697, Department of Economics - dECON.
    10. Pierre Cahuc, 1990. "La théorie des négociations salariales : une revue de la littérature," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 92(1), pages 21-30.
    11. Mikko Leppämäki & Vesa Kanniainen, 2000. "Entrepreneurship in a Unionised Economy," CESifo Working Paper Series 379, CESifo.
    12. Fanti, Luciano & Gori, Luca, 2013. "Efficient bargaining versus right to manage: A stability analysis in a Cournot duopoly with trade unions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 205-211.
    13. Mikael Carlsson & Stefan Eriksson & Nils Gottfries, 2006. "Testing Theories of Job Creation: Does Supply Create Its Own Demand?," CESifo Working Paper Series 1866, CESifo.
    14. Mulder, C.B., 1987. "Inefficiency of automatically linking unemployment benefits to private sector wage rates," Other publications TiSEM 0ed0d42c-6fc5-4885-a8de-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Jellal, Mohamed, 2009. "Unionized Labor Market and Regulation of Monopoly," MPRA Paper 17279, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Almas Heshmati & Ilham Haouas, 2004. "The effects of union wage-settings on firms' production factor decisions," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(7), pages 415-420.
    17. Justus Haucap & Christian Wey, 2004. "Unionisation structures and innovation incentives," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(494), pages 149-165, March.
    18. Drydakis Nick, 2011. "Greek unions' preferences: measuring trends in the field. An exploratory note on the period 2008–2009," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 17(4), pages 563-576, November.
    19. Mulder, C B, 1993. "Wage-Moderating Effects of Corporatism: Decentralized versus Centralized Wage Setting in a Union, Firm, Government Context," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 61(3), pages 287-301, September.
    20. Shu-hua Chang, 2006. "Unionized oligopoly and vertical integration," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 53(1), pages 1-15, March.
    21. Besancenot, Damien & Vranceanu, Radu, 1999. "A trade union model with endogenous militancy: interpreting the French case," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 355-373, September.
    22. Jean-Paul Azam & Claire Salmon, 2004. "Strikes and Political Activism of Trade Unions: Theory and Application to Bangladesh," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 119(3_4), pages 311-334, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:62:y:2009:i:2:p:147-156. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.