Abstract
“All told, if our research findings are correct, the ongoing decline in private sector unionism ... deserves serious public attention as being socially undesirable. We believe that the time has come for the nation to reassess its implicit and explicit policies toward unionism, such as it has done several times in the past. And we hope that such a reassessment would lead to a new public posture toward the key worker institution under capitalism — a posture based on what unions actually do in society and on what, under the best circumstances, they can do to improve the well-being of the free enterprise system, and of us all” (Freeman and Medoff, 1984, p. 251).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Addison, John T. and John Burton.Trade Unions and Society: Some Lessons of the British Experience. Vancouver, B.C.: The Fraser Institute, 1984.
Addison, John T. and Barry T. Hirsch. “Union Effects on Efficiency, Productivity, and Profits: Alternative Views and Evidence.” Mimeographed. Department of Economics, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, February 1984.
Allen, Steven G. “Unionization and Productivity in Office Building and School Construction.” Mimeographed. Department of Economics, North Carolina State University, 1983a.
___Allen, Steven G. “Union Work Rules and Efficiency in the Building Trades.” Mimeographed. Department of Economics, North Carolina State University, 1983b.
___. “Trade Unions, Absenteeism, and Exit Voice.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review 37 (April 1984): 331–45.
Baldwin, Carliss Y. “Productivity and Labor Unions: An Application of the Theory of Self-enforcing Contracts.”Journal of Business 56 (April 1983): 155–85.
Bok, Derek C. and John T. Dunlop.Labor and the American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970.
Brown, Charles and James L. Medoff. “Trade Unions in the Production Process.”Journal of Political Economy 86 (June 1978): 355–78.
Burton, John. “The Economic Analysis of the Trade Union as a Political Institution.” In J-J. Rosa, ed.,The Economics of Trade Unions — New Directions. Boston, MA: Kluwer Nijhoff, 1984, pp. 123–54.
Caves, Richard E., Michael E. Porter, A. Michael Spence, and John T. Scott.Competition in the Open Economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980.
Clark, Kim B. “The Impact of Unionization on Productivity: A Case Study.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review 33 (July 1980): 451–69.
___. “Unionization and Firm Performance: The Impact on Profits, Growth, and Productivity.”American Economic Review 74 (December 1984): 893–919.
Connerton, Margaret, Richard B. Freeman, and James L. Medoff. “Industrial Relations and Productivity: A Study of the U.S. Bituminous Coal Industry.” Mimeographed. Department of Economics, Harvard University.” 1983 (revision).
De Alessi, Louis. “Property Rights, Transaction Costs, and X-Efficiency: An Essay in Economic Theory.”American Economic Review 73 (March 1983): 64–81.
DeFina, Robert H. “Unions, Relative Wages, and Economic Efficiency.”Journal of Labor Economics 1 (October 1983): 408–29.
Duncan, Greg J. and Frank P. Stafford. “Do Union Members Receive Compensating Differentials?”American Economic Review 70 (June 1980); 355–71.
Ehrenberg, Ronald G., Daniel R. Sherman, and Joshua C. Schwarz. “Unions and Productivity in the Public Sector: A Study of Municipal Libraries.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review 36 (January 1983): 199–213.
Faith, Roger L. and Joseph D. Reid, Jr. “The Labor Union as Its Members’ Agent.” In Joseph D. Reid, Jr., ed.,New Approaches to Labor Unions. Supplement (2) toResearch in Labor Economics. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1983, pp. 3–25.
Freeman, Richard B. “Individual Mobility and Union Voice in the Labor Market.”American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings 66 (May 1976): 261–68.
___. “The Simple Economics of Declining Union Density.” NBER Working Paper (forthcoming).
___ and James L. Medoff. “The Two Faces of Unionism.”Public Interest, No. 57 (Fall 1979): 69–83.
___. “The Impact of the Percent Organized on Union and Nonunion Wages.”Review of Economics and Statistics 63 (November 1981): 561–72.
___.What Do Unions Do? New York: Basic Books, 1984.
Gollop, Frank M. “The Effect of Unionization on Productivity in U.S. Manufacturing.” Working Paper 7614. Social Systems Research Institute, University of Wisconsin, September 1976.
Hirsch, Barry T. and John T. Addison.Economic Analysis of Labor Unions — New Approaches and Evidence. London and Boston: George Allen and Unwin (forthcoming).
Hirsch, Barry T. and Robert A. Connolly. “Union Effects on Profitability and R&D Intensity.” Mimeographed. Department of Economics, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, August 1984.
Hirsch, Barry T. and Albert N. Link. “Union, Productivity and Productivity Growth.”Journal of Labor Research 5 (Winter 1984): 29–37.
Hirschman, Albert O.Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.
Johnson, George E. “Unionism in a Macroeconomic Context: An Exploratory Analysis.” Mimeographed. Department of Economics, University of Michigan, April 1983.
Johnson, Harry G. and Peter Mieszkowski. “The Effects of Unionization on the Distribution of Income: A General Equilibrium Approach.”Quarterly Journal of Economics 84 (June 1970): 509–61.
Kuhn, Peter. “Union Productivity Effects and Economic Efficiency.” Mimeographed. Department of Economics, University of Western Ontario, December 1983.
Leibenstein, Harvey S. “Allocation Efficiency vs. X-Efficiency.”American Economic Review 61 (June 1966): 392–415.
Leigh, Duane E. “Union Preferences, Job Satisfaction, and the Union Voice Hypothesis.” Mimeographed. Washington State University, June 1984.
Link, Albert N. “Basic Research and Productivity Increase in Manufacturing.”American Economic Review 71 (December 1981): 1111–12.
Maki, Dennis R. “The Effects of Unions and Strikes on the Rate of Growth of Total Factor Productivity in Canada.”Applied Economics 15 (February 1983): 29–41.
Mansfield, Edwin. “Basic Research and Productivity Increase in Manufacturing.”American Economic Review 70 (December 1980): 863–73.
Martin, Donald L.An Ownership Theory of the Trade Union. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980.
Mincer, Jacob. “Union Effects: Wages, Turnover, and Job Training.” In Joseph D. Reid, Jr., ed.,New Approaches to Labor Unions. Supplement (2) toResearch in Labor Economics. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1983, pp. 217–52.
Minford, Patrick. “Labour Market Equilibrium in an Open Economy.” Working Paper No. 8103. Department of Economics, University of Liverpool, 1981.
Mishel, Lawrence R. and Paula B. Voos. “The Union Impact on Profits: Evidence from Industry Price-Cost Margin Data.” Mimeographed. Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin, 1984.
Moore, William J. and John Raisian. “The Level and Growth of Union-Nonunion Relative Wage Effects, 1967–1977.”Journal of Labor Research 4 (Winter 1983): 65–79.
Noam, Eli M. “The Effect of Unionization and Civil Service on the Salaries and Productivity of Regulators.” In Joseph D. Reid, Jr., ed.,New Approaches to Labor Unions. Supplement (2) toResearch in Labor Economics, 1983, pp. 157–70.
Pencavel, John H. “The Distributional and Efficiency Effects of Trade Unions in Britain.”British Journal of Industrial Relations 15 (July 1977): 137–56.
_____. “A Comment on Addison.” In J-J. Rosa, ed.,The Economics of Trade Unions — New Directions. Boston, MA: Kluwer Nijhoff, 1983, pp. 115–19.
_____ and Catherine E. Hartsog. “A Reconsideration of the Effects of Unionism on Relative Wages and Employment in the United States, 1920–1980.”Journal of Labor Economics 2 (April 1984): 198–232.
Raskin, A. H. “Labor’s Social Value.”The New Leader, May 14, 1984, pp. 15–17.
Reder, Melvin W. “Strike Cost and Wage Rates: Cross-Industry Differences.” In J-J. Rosa, ed.,The Economics of Trade Unions — New Directions. Boston, MA: Kluwer Nijhoff, 1984, pp. 27–37.
Rees, Albert. “The Effects of Unions on Resource Allocation.”Journal of Law and Economics 6 (October 1963): 69–78.
Reynolds, Morgan O.Power and Privilege — Labor Unions in America. New York: Universe Books, 1983.
Slichter, Summer H., James J. Healy, and E. Robert Livernash.The Impact of Collective Bargaining on Management. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1960.
Sloan, Frank A. and Killard W. Adamache. “The Role of Unions in Hospital Cost Inflation.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review 37 (January 1984): 252–62.
Stigler, George J. “The X-istence of X-Efficiency.”American Economic Review 66 (March 1976): 213–16.
Terleckyj, Nestor E. “What Do R&D Numbers Tell Us About Technological Change?”American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings 70 (May 1980): 55–61.
Troy, Leo, C. Timothy Koeller, and Neil Sheflin. “The Three Faces of Unionism.”Policy Review, No. 14 (Fall 1980): 95–109.
Uri, Noel D. and J. Wilson Mixon. “An Economic Analysis of the Determinants of Minimum Wage Voting Behavior.”Journal of Law and Economics 23 (April 1980): 167–77.
Warren, Ronald S., Jr. “The Effect of Unionization on Labor Productivity: Some Time-Series Evidence.” Mimeographed. Department of Economics, University of Virginia, 1984.
Weiler, Paul. “Promises to Keep: Securing Workers’ Rights to Self-organization under the NLRA.”Harvard Law Review 96 (June 1983): 1769–1827.
Williamson, Oliver E. “Efficient Labor Organization.” Mimeographed. Center for the Study of Organizational Innovation, University of Pennsylvania, April 1982.
_____, Michael L. Wachter, and Jeffrey E. Harris. “Understanding the Employment Relation: The Analysis of Idiosyncratic Exchange.”Bell Journal of Economics 6 (Spring 1975): 250–80.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Helpful comments on an earlier draft were received from Barry Hirsch, Stanley Siebert, Leo Troy, Richard Perlman, and Joe Reid.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Addison, J.T. What do unions really do? A review article. Journal of Labor Research 6, 127–146 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02685159
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02685159