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. repec:bla:scandj:v:87:y:1985:i:2:p:194-96 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    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. Rees, Albert, 1989. "The Economics of Trade Unions," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226707105, March.
    10. Oswald, Andrew J, 1982. "The Microeconomic Theory of the Trade Union," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(367), pages 576-595, September.
    11. Booth,Alison L., 1994. "The Economics of the Trade Union," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521468398, July.
    12. Orley Ashenfelter & James N. Brown, 1985. "Testing the Efficiency of Employment Contracts," Working Papers 573, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    13. repec:bla:scandj:v:87:y:1985:i:2:p:160-93 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    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," IZA Discussion Papers 5875, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    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. Nicholas Lawson, 2010. "Is Collective Bargaining Pareto Efficient? A Survey of the Literature," Working Papers 1268, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    2. 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.
    3. repec:pri:indrel:dsp01cc08hf62w is not listed on IDEAS
    4. 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.
    5. S. Dobbelaere, 2003. "Joint Estimation of Price-Cost Margins and Union Bargaining Power for Belgian Manufacturing," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 03/171, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    6. 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.
    7. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:1039-1089 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. 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.
    9. Goerke, Laszlo & Madsen, Jakob B., 2003. "Earnings-Related Unemployment Benefits in a Unionised Economy," IZA Discussion Papers 701, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. Peter J. Luke & Mark E. Schaffer, 1999. "Wage Determination in Russia: An Econometric Investigation," CERT Discussion Papers 9908, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.
    13. Mickiewicz, Tomasz & Gerry, Christopher J. & Bishop, Kate, 2005. "Privatisation, corporate control and employment growth: Evidence from a panel of large Polish firms, 1996-2002," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 98-119, March.
    14. Tomasz Marek Mickiewicz & Christopher Gerry & Kate Bishop, 2004. "Inherited labour hoarding, insiders and employment growth. Panel data results: Poland, 1996-2002," UCL SSEES Economics and Business working paper series 37, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES).
    15. Andrews, Martyn & Harrison, Alan, 1998. "Testing for Efficient Contracts in Unionized Labour Markets," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 171-200, July.
    16. Callaway, Brantly & Collins, William J., 2018. "Unions, workers, and wages at the peak of the American labor movement," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 95-118.
    17. Luciano Fanti, 2011. "When do firms prefer either monopolistic unions or an efficient bargaining?," Discussion Papers 2011/130, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    18. Marie-Claire Villeval & Manfred Konigstein, 2005. "The Choice of the Agenda in Labor Negotiations: efficiency and behavioral considerations," Working Papers 0508, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    19. 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.
    20. Laszlo Goerke, 1998. "Privatization and efficiency wages," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 243-264, October.
    21. Vasilev, Aleksandar, 2013. "Essays on Real Business Cycle Modeling and the Public Sector," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 130522, March.
    22. Steven G Allen & Adriana Cassoni & Gastón J Labadie, 1996. "Wages and Employment After Reunionization in Uruguay," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 33(99), pages 277-294.

    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.