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Accounting For The Decline in Union Membership

Author

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  • William T. Dickens
  • Jonathan S. Leonard
Abstract
Since the early 50s, the percent of the workforce organized by unions has declined considerably. In the most recent decade that rate of decline has accelerated sharply. In an attempt to discover what factors can account for the overall decline and the further deterioration during the 70s, we decompose the sources of growth and decline to determine the relative importance of changes in organizing activity, success in certification elections, decertifications, and net growth due to economic causes. We find that all factors except decertifications account for a substantial part of the change. In addition, interactions between the factors are very important. A significant finding is that while organizing activity and success rates have been declining over time, the net growth (or loss) of membership due to economic causes has remained stable controlling for the aggregate level of economic activity. We argue that this finding is inconsistent with the prevailing view that the decline in the percent of the workforce organized is primarily due to the decline of the heavily unionized core industries.

Suggested Citation

  • William T. Dickens & Jonathan S. Leonard, 1984. "Accounting For The Decline in Union Membership," NBER Working Papers 1275, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1275
    Note: LS
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    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w1275.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Michael Kremer & Benjamin A. Olken, 2009. "A Biological Model of Unions," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 150-175, April.
    2. Barry T. Hirsch, 2008. "Sluggish Institutions in a Dynamic World: Can Unions and Industrial Competition Coexist?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(1), pages 153-176, Winter.
    3. Thomas J. Holmes, 2013. "New manufacturing investment and unions," Economic Policy Paper 13-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    4. Gundlach, Erich & Schmidt, Klaus-Dieter, 1985. "Das amerikanische Beschäftigungswunder: Was sich daraus lernen läßt," Kiel Discussion Papers 109, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    5. Alexey Levkov, 2010. "Branching of banks and union decline," Supervisory Research and Analysis Working Papers QAU10-7, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    6. Henry S. Farber, 1999. "Union Success in Representation Elections: Why Does Unit Size Matter?," NBER Working Papers 7229, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. repec:pri:cepsud:113krusell is not listed on IDEAS

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