Unions and Firm Solvency

该项目的目的是对成立工会对企业破产、清算和因工厂关闭而导致的失业的影响进行第一次严格的实证分析。一个一致的经验发现是，工会的工资涨幅高于非工会公司，在竞争激烈的产品市场中，人们预计会发现，加入工会的公司比非工会公司更容易倒闭。然而，如果工会参与经济租金分享，那么在经济困难时期，加入工会的公司可能能够通过退还部分租金来保持偿付能力。这些潜在的结果将通过首先检查工会公司相对于非工会公司破产的程度来进行实证分析。其次，将确定公司放弃加入工会的业务线相对于未加入工会的业务线的程度。最后，将调查与未加入工会的工厂相比，加入工会的工厂关闭和工人失业的程度。将使用来自Compustat、制造业普查数据的工厂关闭数据、当前的人口调查以及从这些公司开发的新调查数据。该项目将在两个经济学领域--劳动经济学和产业组织--做出重要贡献。研究结果将提高我们对企业倒闭、工会对企业业绩的作用以及这些与不同水平的利润、就业和产业结构之间的关系的理解。

The purpose of the project is to provide the first rigorous empirical analysis of the impact of unionization on firm bankruptcy, liquidation and unemployment due to plant closings. A consistent empirical finding is that unions raise wages above those found in nonunion firms and that in a competitive product market one would expect to find that unionized firms would go out of business more than nonunion firms. However, if unions engage in economic rent sharing then during periods of economic hardship unionized firms may be able to remain solvent by giving back some of these rents. These potential outcomes will be empirically analyzed by first examining the extent to which unionized firms become insolvent relative to nonunion firms. Second, the extent to which firms drop unionized lines of business relative to nonunionized ones will be determined. Finally, the extent to which unionized plants close and workers become unemployed relative to nonunionized ones will be investigated. Data from COMPUSTAT, Census of Manufactures data on plant closings, the Current Population Survey, as well as new survey data developed from these companies will be used. The project will make an important contribution in two areas of economics - labor economics and industrial organization. The results will improve our understanding of firm shutdowns, the role of unions on firm performance and how these are related to varying levels of profit, employment and industrial structure.