Abstract
A number of states and municipalities in the US have adopted sunshine laws that allow the eneral public to attend bargaining sessions between municipalities and public employees. There is disagreement about the effects of these laws. Proponents argue that sunshine laws may be an effective way of lowering labour costs since they allow the monitoring of the bargaining behaviour of the municipality and public employee union. Specifically, the laws may mitigate Niskanen-type bureaucratic behaviour by the municipality. Arguments against the effectiveness of these laws include manipulation of the timing of bargaining sessions to evade public notice, the short-time horizons of politicians, little incentive for the general public to attend sessions and attendance of bargaining sessions by public employees who may then negate the influence of the general public. To test for the effect of sunshine laws, labour outcomes were collected for national cross-samples of police and firefighters. For both protective service...
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