The Impact of Deregulation on the Employment and Wages of Airline Mechanics

Working Paper: NBER ID: w1847

Authors: David Card

Abstract: This paper describes the effects of deregulation on negotiated wage rates and employment levels of aircraft mechanics in the scheduled airline industry. Firm-specific data for the incumbent trunk airlines show relatively small changes in real wage rates since deregulation,and only recent increases in interfirm wage differentials. Employment growth rates, on the other hand, have varied widely among the incumbents, and between the incumbent trunks and the local service and new-entrant airlines. The data suggest that deregulation resulted in a transfer of 5000-7000 maintenance jobs from the incumbent trunks to the smaller airlines. This shift in employment reduced mechanics' earnings in the industry by as much as 5 percent.

Keywords: No keywords provided

JEL Codes: No JEL codes provided


Causal Claims Network Graph

Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.


Causal Claims

CauseEffect
Deregulation (L51)Transfer of maintenance jobs from trunk airlines to smaller airlines (L93)
Transfer of maintenance jobs from trunk airlines to smaller airlines (L93)Reduced mechanics' earnings in the industry (J39)
Deregulation (L51)Decline in maintenance employment at trunk airlines (L93)
Deregulation (L51)Employment shifts (J63)
Market competition (L13)Employment without immediate effect on wages (J39)
Deregulation (L51)Productivity growth rates (O49)

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