Comparisons Between Public and Private Sector Union Wage Differentials: Does the Legal Environment Matter

对公共部门工会工资差异的估计通常小于对私营部门工会工资差异的估计。本研究调查了这在多大程度上反映了管理每个部门讨价还价的法律环境的差异。在许多州，公共部门的工会与私营部门的工会相比，必须争取更少的合法权利。在极端情况下，法律禁止公共部门讨价还价。与以往的研究不同，该估计过程考虑了议价律变量可能的内生性。对随机效应模型进行了估计，并进行了Hausman检验，以检验特定状态误差分量与自变量之间的相关性。对1977年5月当期人口调查数据的初步分析表明，法律环境不是解释公共部门工会工资差别很小的关键因素。

Estimates of public sector union wage differentials are typically smaller than estimates of private sector union wage differentials. This study investigates the extent to which this reflects the differences in legal environments which govern bargaining in each sector. Public sector unions in many states must bargain with fewer legal rights than their private sector counterparts. In the extreme, public sector bargaining is prohibited by law. The estimation procedure takes into account the possible endogeneity of the bargaining law variables in a way which differs from previous studies. Random effects models are estimated and Hausman tests carried out to test for correlation between the state-specific error component and the independent variables. Preliminary analysis on data taken from the l977 May Current Population Survey indicates that the legal environment is not a key factor in explaining the small public sector union wage differentials.