IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v43y2025i2p319-342.html

Unions and workplace safety investment in Chinese private enterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Yinxiao Chu
  • Xiaoyu Huang
  • Jianxing Wei

Abstract

This paper examines the significant role of unions in workplace safety investment. Analyzing data from a national survey of Chinese private enterprises, we find that unionization has a positive effect on workplace safety investment. We test several mechanisms through which unionization may enhance workplace safety investment. Unionization increases investment in workplace safety by advocating for formal contracts between employees and firms. More importantly, unionization enhances workplace safety investment through the democratization of corporate governance structure. Furthermore, the employee representative assembly system, a fundamental mechanism for union participation in democratic management within Chinese firms, is also observed to augment safety investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Yinxiao Chu & Xiaoyu Huang & Jianxing Wei, 2025. "Unions and workplace safety investment in Chinese private enterprises," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 43(2), pages 319-342, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:43:y:2025:i:2:p:319-342
    DOI: 10.1111/coep.12673
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/coep.12673
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/coep.12673?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Bradley & Incheol Kim & Xuan Tian, 2017. "Do Unions Affect Innovation?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(7), pages 2251-2271, July.
    2. Gilles Hilary, 2006. "Organized labor and information asymmetry in the financial markets," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 525-548, December.
    3. Lu, Yi & Tao, Zhigang & Wang, Yijiang, 2010. "Union effects on performance and employment relations: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 202-210, March.
    4. Xiao Yuan & Yaoshan Xu & Yongjuan Li, 2020. "Resource Depletion Perspective on the Link Between Abusive Supervision and Safety Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 213-228, February.
    5. Hansen, Lars Peter, 1982. "Large Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1029-1054, July.
    6. Randall K. Filer & Devra L. Golbe, 2003. "Debt, Operating Margin, and Investment In Workplace Safety," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 359-381, September.
    7. Hao Liang & Luc Renneboog, 2017. "On the Foundations of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(2), pages 853-910, April.
    8. Di Giuli, Alberta & Kostovetsky, Leonard, 2014. "Are red or blue companies more likely to go green? Politics and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(1), pages 158-180.
    9. Caskey, Judson & Ozel, N. Bugra, 2017. "Earnings expectations and employee safety," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 121-141.
    10. David S. Lee & Alexandre Mas, 2012. "Long-Run Impacts of Unions on Firms: New Evidence from Financial Markets, 1961--1999," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(1), pages 333-378.
    11. Jonathan Cohn & Nicole Nestoriak & Malcolm Wardlaw & Wei Jiang, 2021. "Private Equity Buyouts and Workplace Safety," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(10), pages 4832-4875.
    12. Fauver, Larry & Fuerst, Michael E., 2006. "Does good corporate governance include employee representation? Evidence from German corporate boards," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 673-710, December.
    13. Tirole, Jean, 2001. "Corporate Governance," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(1), pages 1-35, January.
    14. ., 2001. "Corporate Governance in Islamic Banking," Chapters, in: Islamic Banking, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Raymond Fisman & Yongxiang Wang, 2015. "The Mortality Cost of Political Connections," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(4), pages 1346-1382.
    16. Ferrell, Allen & Liang, Hao & Renneboog, Luc, 2016. "Socially responsible firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 585-606.
    17. Ruixue Jia & Huihua Nie, 2017. "Decentralization, Collusion, and Coal Mine Deaths," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(1), pages 105-118, March.
    18. Li, Hongbin & Meng, Lingsheng & Wang, Qian & Zhou, Li-An, 2008. "Political connections, financing and firm performance: Evidence from Chinese private firms," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 283-299, October.
    19. Omesh Kini & Mo Shen & Jaideep Shenoy & Venkat Subramaniam, 2022. "Labor Unions and Product Quality Failures," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(7), pages 5403-5440, July.
    20. Hagedorn, J. & Paras, C.A. & Greenwich, H. & Hagopian, A., 2016. "The role of labor unions in creating working conditions that promote public health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(6), pages 989-995.
    21. John Budd & Wei Chi & Yijiang Wang & Qianyun Xie, 2014. "What Do Unions in China Do? Provincial-Level Evidence on Wages, Employment, Productivity, and Economic Output," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 185-204, June.
    22. Jing, Chenxing & Keasey, Kevin & Lim, Ivan & Xu, Bin, 2019. "Financial constraints and employee satisfaction," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1-1.
    23. Xavier Giroud & Holger M. Mueller, 2011. "Corporate Governance, Product Market Competition, and Equity Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 563-600, April.
    24. Murillo Campello & Janet Gao & Jiaping Qiu & Yue Zhang, 2018. "Bankruptcy and the Cost of Organized Labor: Evidence from Union Elections," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(3), pages 980-1013.
    25. Lin, Chen & Schmid, Thomas & Xuan, Yuhai, 2018. "Employee representation and financial leverage," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(2), pages 303-324.
    26. Campello, Murillo & Gao, Janet & Qiu, Jiaping & Zhang, Yue, 2018. "Bankruptcy and the cost of organized labor: Evidence from union elections," LIDAM Reprints LFIN 2018015, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain Finance (LFIN).
    27. Jonathan B. Cohn & Malcolm I. Wardlaw, 2016. "Financing Constraints and Workplace Safety," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(5), pages 2017-2058, October.
    28. Yang Yao & Ninghua Zhong, 2013. "Unions and Workers' Welfare in Chinese Firms," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(3), pages 633-667.
    29. Ertugrul, Mine & Marciukaityte, Dalia, 2021. "Labor unions and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    30. Paul Gompers & Joy Ishii & Andrew Metrick, 2003. "Corporate Governance and Equity Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 107-156.
    31. Michael Magill & Martine Quinzii & Jean‐Charles Rochet, 2015. "A Theory of the Stakeholder Corporation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83(5), pages 1685-1725, September.
    32. Harrison Hong & Jeffrey D. Kubik & Jose A. Scheinkman, 2012. "Financial Constraints on Corporate Goodness," NBER Working Papers 18476, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    33. Simon Clarke & Chang‐Hee Lee & Qi Li, 2004. "Collective Consultation and Industrial Relations in China," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 42(2), pages 235-254, June.
    34. Bae, Kee-Hong & Kang, Jun-Koo & Wang, Jin, 2011. "Employee treatment and firm leverage: A test of the stakeholder theory of capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 130-153, April.
    35. Shai Bernstein & Albert Sheen, 2016. "The Operational Consequences of Private Equity Buyouts: Evidence from the Restaurant Industry," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(9), pages 2387-2418.
    36. Chen, Yan-Shing & Chen, I-Ju, 2013. "The impact of labor unions on investment-cash flow sensitivity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2408-2418.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Ertugrul, Mine & Marciukaityte, Dalia, 2021. "Labor unions and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    2. Yi Si & Chongwu Xia, 2023. "The Effect of Human Capital on Stock Price Crash Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(3), pages 589-609, October.
    3. Ormazabal, Gaizka, 2018. "The Role of Stakeholders in Corporate Governance: A View from Accounting Research," CEPR Discussion Papers 12775, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    4. Unsal, Omer, 2024. "Employee lawsuits and business downsizing: Evidence from labor unions," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Jiang, Xiandeng & Yang, Jin & Yang, Wei & Zhang, Jian, 2021. "Do employees’ voices matter? Unionization and corporate environmental responsibility," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1265-1281.
    6. Wang, Xiaoqiong & Zhu, Xiaoyang, 2025. "Fading virtue, flourishing profits: Corporate social responsibility in the presence of competitor constraints," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    7. Liu, Xianda & Hou, Wenxuan & Main, Brian G.M., 2022. "Anti-market sentiment and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from anti-Jewish pogroms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Hao, Liang & Rong, Wang & Haikun, Zhu, 2020. "Growing up under Mao and Deng : On the ideological determinants of corporate policies," BOFIT Discussion Papers 20/2020, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    9. Liang, Hao & Wang, Rong & Zhu, Haikun, 2020. "Growing up under Mao and Deng: On the ideological determinants of corporate policies," BOFIT Discussion Papers 20/2020, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    10. Liu, Haiming & Chiang, Yao-Min, 2024. "Employment protection and environmental corporate social responsibility: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    11. Kim, Hyemin, 2024. "Effects of customer unionization on supplier relationships and supplier value," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    12. Chowdhury, Rajib & Doukas, John A. & Park, Jong Chool, 2021. "Stakeholder orientation and the value of cash holdings: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    13. Liu, Hang & Luo, Jin-hui & Wang, Xin, 2021. "Do controlling shareholders expropriate employees? Evidence from workplace fatalities in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    14. Liu, Frank Hong & Wu, Qiang & Zhou, Yue, 2024. "Bank deregulation and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    15. García Lara, Juan Manuel & García Osma, Beatriz & Gazizova, Irina & Khalilov, Akram, 2025. "Demand-driven corporate social responsibility: Symbolic versus substantive change after environmental disasters," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    16. Kong, Dongmin & Cheng, Xu & Jiang, Xiandeng, 2021. "Effects of political promotion on local firms’ social responsibility in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 418-429.
    17. Choi, Dong Beom & Jeong, Seongjun, 2025. "CSR scores versus actual impacts: Banks’ main street lending during the great recession," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    18. Magnus Schauf & Eline Schoonjans, 2022. "Better Safe than Sorry: Toxic Waste Management after Unionization," Working Papers 220, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    19. Kim, Hyun-Dong & Kim, Taeyeon & Kim, Yura & Park, Kwangwoo, 2019. "Do long-term institutional investors promote corporate social responsibility activities?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 256-269.
    20. Brockman, Paul & Luo, Juan & Xu, Limin, 2020. "The impact of short-selling pressure on corporate employee relations," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).

    More about this item

    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:bla:coecpo:v:43:y:2025:i:2:p:319-342. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    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.