Presence Of Labor Unions Research Articles

Regional Differentiation in Trade Union Density

In general, regional economic analysis of trade unions is particularly directed at the effects of labour unions, whereas the conditions and causal aspects which influence the presence of labour unions in regions are studied far less. In this paper an attempt is made to fill part of this gap in knowledge by means of an analysis of the causes of the regional differentiation in labour union membership in the Netherlands. A theoretical survey into the causes of variation in regional membership is reported on. Subsequently, the effects of the potential causes of this regional differentiation are analysed empirically. First, it was found that several potentially important aspects do not explain the regional variation in membership. Second, those aspects that were relevant can be reduced to two common factors. Third, it can be concluded that the rather low level of explanation of the regional differentiation suggests that present economic locational analysis should be supplemented by an approach in which the economic historical context is taken into account too. Regional differentiation in trade union membership can only fully be understood from a regional economic historical approach.

The Political Economy of Job Loss in the United States, 1970-1980

Many analysts have asserted that recent interregional shifts in investment and jobs in manufacturing are the product of variations in the socioeconomic characteristics of geographic regions. Conventional industrial location theorists tend to point to the market potential, physical characteristics, and human capital endowments of geographic regions. In contrast, neoMarxist and business climate theorists typically cite political-economic explanations related to the strength and cost of labor, the level of taxation, and the extent of social welfare provisions. Using state level data, I evaluate the relative empirical utility of these various explanations in predicting changes in employment in manufacturing between 1970 and 1980. The results provide partial support for the political-economic explanation and no support for conventional industrial location theories. In particular, the empirical evidence points to the importance of labor organization in promoting the relocation of manufacturing employment. Few transformations in the American economy over the past 15 years have received greater attention than the interregional migration of industries and jobs from the traditional industrial belt to new locations within the United States. Though many analysts assert that this rapid movement of capital and jobs is the product of variations in the socioeconomic characteristics of geographic regions (Bluestone and Harrison, 1982; Weinstein and Firestine, 1978), there is little agreement over which characteristics are the most important for investment or disinvestment decisions. Conventional industrial location theorists tend to point to the human capital, physical, and market-size endowments of geographic areas as the leading determinants of plant location (Miller, 1977). Neo-Marxist and business climate theorists tend to emphasize political-economic factors associated with the presence of labor unions and wage costs (Peet, 1983; Storper and Walker, 1983), the level of state taxation (Kieschnick, 1981), and the extent of social welfare benefits (Bluestone and Harrison, 1982; Piven and Cloward, 1982). In this paper I use state-level data to evaluate the relative utility of these explanations as they relate to

Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach

Since the turn of the twentieth century, legislation in Western countries has expanded rapidly to reverse the brief dominance of laissez faire during the nineteenth century. The state no longer merely protects against violations of person and property through murder, rape, or burglary but also restricts ‘discrimination’ against certain minorities, collusive business arrangements, ‘jaywalking’, travel, the materials used in construction, and thousands of other activities. The activities restricted not only are numerous but also range widely, affecting persons in very different pursuits and of diverse social backgrounds, education levels, ages, races, etc. Moreover, the likelihood that an offender will be discovered and convicted and the nature and extent of punishments differ greatly from person to person and activity to activity. Yet, in spite of such diversity, some common properties are shared by practically all legislation, and these properties form the subject matter of this essay.