IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/trb/wpaper/2000.04.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Unionisation, short-run flexibility and cost efficiency: Evidence from U.S. manufacturing

Author

Listed:
  • Elisabetta Magnani

    (The University of New South Wales)

  • David Prentice

    (School of Economics, La Trobe University)

Abstract

Flexibility is of great interest to policy makers and in the popular policy debate, unions are believed to be a main impediment to achieving it. However, these beliefs are not based on firm empirical foundations. Using a new dataset on U.S. three digit manufacturing industries from 1971 - 1994, we quantify, for the first time, Stigler's concept of output flexibility, estimate input flexibility and quantify the effects of unionisation on both. We find that on average unionisation reduces input flexibility by about 50%, raises average costs by about 3% but reduces output flexibility by just 0.35%.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisabetta Magnani & David Prentice, 2000. "Unionisation, short-run flexibility and cost efficiency: Evidence from U.S. manufacturing," Working Papers 2000.04, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    • Handle: RePEc:trb:wpaper:2000.04
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/130859/2000.04.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2000.04.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Earle, John S & Pencavel, John, 1990. "Hours of Work and Trade Unionism," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(1), pages 150-174, January.
    2. Eberts, Randall W & Stone, Joe A, 1991. "Unionization and Cost of Production: Compensation, Productivity, and Factor-Use Effects," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(2), pages 171-185, April.
    3. Daniel S. Hamermesh & Stephen J. Trejo, 2000. "The Demand for Hours of Labor: Direct Evidence from California," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 38-47, February.
    4. Hiebert, L Dean, 1989. "Cost Flexibility and Price Dispersion," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 103-109, September.
    5. Eric J. Bartelsman & Wayne Gray, 1996. "The NBER Manufacturing Productivity Database," NBER Technical Working Papers 0205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Dorothy Sue Cobble, 1991. "Organizing the Postindustrial Work Force: Lessons from the History of Waitress Unionism," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 44(3), pages 419-436, April.
    7. Freeman, Richard B & Medoff, James L, 1982. "Substitution between Production Labor and Other Inputs in Unionized and Nonunionized Manufacturing," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(2), pages 220-233, May.
    8. Brown, Charles & Medoff, James, 1978. "Trade Unions in the Production Process," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(3), pages 355-378, June.
    9. Edward C. Kokkelenberg & Donna R. Sockell, 1985. "Union Membership in the United States, 1973–1981," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 38(4), pages 497-543, July.
    10. Kim B. Clark, 1980. "Unionization and Productivity: Micro-Econometric Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 95(4), pages 613-639.
    11. Mayshar, Joram & Halevy, Yoram, 1997. "Shiftwork," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 198-222, January.
    12. Timothy F. Bresnahan & Valerie A. Ramey, 1994. "Output Fluctuations at the Plant Level," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 593-624.
    13. George Stigler, 1939. "Production and Distribution in the Short Run," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(3), pages 305-305.
    14. Bils, Mark, 1987. "The Cyclical Behavior of Marginal Cost and Price," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 838-855, December.
    15. Richard B. Freeman & James L. Medoff, 1979. "New Estimates of Private Sector Unionism in the United States," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 32(2), pages 143-174, January.
    16. John M. Abowd & Henry S. Farber, 1990. "Product Market Competition, Union Organizing Activity, and Employer Resistance," Working Papers 1990-2, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    17. Mills, David E, 1984. "Demand Fluctuations and Endogenous Firm Flexibility," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 55-71, September.
    18. John M. Abowd & Henry S. Farber, 1990. "Product Market Competition, Union Organizing Activity, and Employer Resistance," Working Papers 1990-2, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    19. Booth,Alison L., 1994. "The Economics of the Trade Union," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521468398, January.
    20. Ramey, Valerie A, 1989. "Inventories as Factors of Production and Economic Fluctuations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 338-354, June.
    21. Trejo, Stephen J, 1993. "Overtime Pay, Overtime Hours, and Labor Unions," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(2), pages 253-278, April.
    22. Robert A. Jones & Joseph M. Ostroy, 1984. "Flexibility and Uncertainty," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(1), pages 13-32.
    23. Caroline Minter Hoxby, 1996. "How Teachers' Unions Affect Education Production," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(3), pages 671-718.
    24. Diewert, Walter E & Wales, Terence J, 1987. "Flexible Functional Forms and Global Curvature Conditions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(1), pages 43-68, January.
    25. Kostiuk, Peter F, 1990. "Compensating Differentials for Shift Work," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 1054-1075, October.
    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. Magnani, Elisabetta & Prentice, David, 2003. "Did globalization reduce unionization? Evidence from US manufacturing," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(6), pages 705-726, December.
    2. Elisabetta Magnani & David Prentice, 2010. "Outsourcing And Unionization: A Tale Of Misallocated (Resistance) Resources," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(2), pages 460-482, April.
    3. Samantha Farmakis‐Gamboni & David Prentice, 2011. "When Does Reducing Union Bargaining Power Increase Productivity? Evidence from the Workplace Relations Act," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 87(279), pages 603-616, December.
    4. Swetlana Renner & Thomas Glauben & Heinrich Hockmann, 2014. "Measurement and decomposition of flexibility of multi-output firms," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 41(5), pages 745-773.
    5. Aaron J. Sojourner & Brigham R. Frandsen & Robert J. Town & David C. Grabowski & Min M. Chen, 2015. "Impacts of Unionization on Quality and Productivity," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 68(4), pages 771-806, August.
    6. Renner, Swetlana & Pieniadz, Agata, 2008. "Conceptualisation of family farms’ flexibility," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 44126, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Yang, Liu & Wang, Yonggui & Ma, Jun & Ng, Chi To & Cheng, T.C.E., 2014. "Technology investment under flexible capacity strategy with demand uncertainty," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 190-197.
    8. Ruiz-Verdú, Pablo, 2002. "Employer behavior when workers can unionize," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB wb020803, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    9. Richard J. Arend, 2022. "Breaking Cournot: The Effects of Capacity-Adjusting Technology," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-11, August.
    10. Charles A. Fleischman, 1996. "The endogeneity of employment adjustment costs: the tradeoff between efficiency and flexibility," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1996-48, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    11. Sigfrido Lee & Carmen Urizar H., 2003. "The Effects of Unions on Productivity: Evidence from Large Coffee Producers in Guatemala," Research Department Publications 3166, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    12. Adamson, Dwight W. & Partridge, Mark, 1994. "The Influence of International on Union Firm Hiring and Worker Union Choice," Economics Staff Papers 232237, South Dakota State University, Department of Economics.
    13. Samantha Farmakis-Gamboni & David Prentice, 2007. "Does Reducing Union Bargaining Power Increase Productivity?," Working Papers 2007.04 EDIRC Provider-In, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    14. Bils, Mark & Chang, Yongsung, 2000. "Understanding how price responds to costs and production," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 33-77, June.
    15. Kala Krishna & Marie Thursby, 1994. "Structural Flexibility: A Partial Ordering," NBER Working Papers 4615, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Rabah Amir, "undated". "Market Structure, Scale Economies and Industry Performance," CIE Discussion Papers 2000-03, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Industrial Economics.
    17. Takuya HASEBE & Yoshifumi KONISHI & Kong Joo SHIN & Shunsuke MANAGI, 2018. "White Collar Exemption: Panacea for long work hours and low earnings?," Discussion papers 18002, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    18. Halvor Briseid Storrøsten, 2012. "Prices vs. quantities: Technology choice, uncertainty and welfare," Discussion Papers 677, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    19. Aubhik Khan & Julia K. Thomas, 2007. "Inventories and the Business Cycle: An Equilibrium Analysis of ( S , s ) Policies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(4), pages 1165-1188, September.
    20. Bishnupriya Gupta, 2011. "Wages, unions, and labour productivity: evidence from Indian cotton mills," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(s1), pages 76-98, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour Market; Workers Representation; Costs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J5 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • L6 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing

    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:trb:wpaper:2000.04. 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: Stephen Scoglio The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Stephen Scoglio to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sblatau.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.