Impacts of Unionization on Quality and Productivity

Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Nursing Homes

Bibliographic Data

ID3240532
AuthorsAaron Sojourner (0000-0001-6839-2512), Aaron J Sojourner, Brigham R Frandsen (0000-0002-4283-413X), Robert J Town, Robert Town, David C Grabowski (0000-0003-2915-5770), Min Chen (0000-0001-8922-8789, University of Pennsylvania), Min M Chen (Aaron Sojourner is Assistant Professor in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Brigham R. Frandsen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Brigham Young University. Robert J. Town is Professor in the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. David C. Grabowski is Professor in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. Min M. Chen is Assistant Professor in the College of Business at Florida International University)
Year2015
Volume68
Issue4
Pages771-806
Publication date2015-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIndustrial and Labor Relations Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0019-7939 • E-ISSN: 2162-271X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0019793915586380
OpenAlexW2244496492
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited41

Using a regression discontinuity design, the authors of this article examine the effects of nursing home unionization on several labor, establishment, and consumer outcomes. They find negative effects of unionization on staffing levels and no decline in care quality, suggesting positive labor productivity effects. Some evidence suggests that nursing homes in less competitive local product markets and those with lower union density at the time of election experienced stronger union employment effects. Unionization appears to raise wages for a given worker while also shifting the composition of the workforce away from higher-earning workers. By combining credible identification of union effects and firm- and worker-level outcomes over time with measures of market-level characteristics, this study provides important new evidence on many controversial questions in the economics of unions. It also generates evidence from the service sector, which has grown in importance and where evidence has been thin

Business · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Labour economics · Product (mathematics) · Productivity · Quality (philosophy) · Regression discontinuity design · Service (business) · Staffing · Workforce · Employment and Welfare Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Medicine · Retirement, Disability, and Employment

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