The Impacts of Collective Bargaining on Local Government Services: A Review of Research

Abstract

7IShe past decade's huge growth in local government expenditures, the near bankruptcy of major American cities, and the rising swell of taxpayer discontent are leading indicators of a continuing urban fiscal crisis. A belief of many local government officials, citizens, and scholars is that collective bargaining is partly, and perhaps substantially, to blame for this fiscal crisis.' The specific impacts of local government employee unionization and collective bargaining have been debated for the past decade. This debate has yielded occasionally conflicting and, on some issues, only fragmentary empirical evidence. This paper reviews available evidence as a means of developing generalizations about the impact of unionization and collective bargaining on local services and of identifying future research needs.