Working Paper: NBER ID: w3978
Authors: Janet Currie; Sheena McConnell
Abstract: This paper estimates the impact of collective bargaining legislation on disputes during labor negotiations in the U.S. public sector. We use a large national sample of U.S. state and local government contracts to compare the incidence and intensity of disputes by similar workers under different forms of collective bargaining legislation. The breadth of our data allows us to examine the impact of five different forms of legislation. Our principal finding is that strike costs, measured by strike duration and the number of working days lost, are highest in jurisdictions that provide no explicit framework for bargaining or dispute resolution.
Keywords: collective bargaining; public sector; labor disputes; legislation
JEL Codes: J52; J53
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| no explicit framework for collective bargaining (J58) | highest strike costs (J52) |
| no duty to bargain (J52) | greater incidence and intensity of disputes (D74) |
| mandatory bargaining and arbitration procedures (J52) | lower strike costs (L11) |