Working Paper: NBER ID: w24782
Authors: Michael Lovenheim; Alexander Willn
Abstract: Teacher collective bargaining is a highly debated feature of the education system in the US. This paper presents the first analysis of the effect of teacher collective bargaining laws on long-run labor market and educational attainment outcomes, exploiting the timing of passage of duty-tobargain laws across cohorts within states and across states over time. Using American Community Survey data linked to each respondent’s state of birth, we examine labor market outcomes and educational attainment for 35-49 year olds, separately by gender. We find robust evidence that exposure to teacher collective bargaining laws worsens the future labor market outcomes of men: in the first 10 years after passage of a duty-to-bargain law, male earnings decline by $2,134 (or 3.93%) per year and hours worked decrease by 0.42 hours per week. The earnings estimates for men indicate that teacher collective bargaining reduces earnings by $213.8 billion in the US annually. We also find evidence of lower male employment rates, which is driven by lower labor force participation. Exposure to collective bargaining laws leads to reductions in the skill levels of the occupations into which male workers sort as well. Effects are largest among black and Hispanic men. Estimates among women are often confounded by secular trend variation, though we do find suggestive evidence of negative impacts among nonwhite women. Using data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we demonstrate that collective bargaining laws lead to reductions in measured non-cognitive skills among young men.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I26; J24; J45; J51
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| exposure to DTB laws (K29) | significant decline in male earnings (J31) |
| exposure to DTB laws (K29) | total annual loss of $213.8 billion in earnings (J17) |
| exposure to DTB laws (K29) | decrease in male employment rates (J79) |
| exposure to DTB laws (K29) | decline in labor force participation (J21) |
| exposure to DTB laws (K29) | negative impact on occupational skill levels (F66) |
| exposure to DTB laws (K29) | decline in earnings among black and Hispanic men (J79) |
| exposure to DTB laws (K29) | reduction in employment likelihood among black and Hispanic men (J79) |
| exposure to DTB laws (K29) | negative effect on non-cognitive skills among young men (J79) |