The Economic Performance of Survivors after Layoffs: A Plant-Level Study

This study tests for the empirical relationship between layoffs and the economic performance of workers who remain after the layoffs. Previous studies performed in laboratory settings have often found increases in the efficiency of workers after layoffs. This analysis is the first to test for this relationship using operating data from a set of similar establishments. Within the framework of a modified Cobb-Douglas production function, layoffs do not influence subsequent productivity in the establishments in this study's sample. It is also suggested that the seniority systems governing layoffs and the highlevels of capital intensity in these establishments may help explain the difference between the findings in the laboratory studies and those obtained in this analysis.

Public Sector Union Growth and Bargaining Laws: A Proportional Hazards Approach with Time-Varying Treatments

This study uses a Cox proportional hazards model to estimate ther elationship between state-level collective bargaining policies and union growth in the public sector. The proportional hazards analysisis performed with data on approximately eight hundred municipal police departments. The timing of unionization in these departments clearly indicates that unionization rarely precedes the enactment of a statute. Where bargaining laws have not been enacted, formal collective bargaining between municipalities and their police is virtually nonexistant. Moreover, the proportional hazards analysis that controls for the effects of other state-level and municipal-level covariates indicates that the bargaining laws and policies are the most important determinant of unionization among police. Among different types of bargaining policies, "duty-to-bargain" provisions lead to higher unionization rates than do statutes that permit, but do not require, employers to bargain with police. However, after controlling for for the effects of other covariates, there appears to be no difference in the unionization rates between the states that have duty-to-bargain provisions along with an interest arbitration mechanism and those states that have duty-to-bargain provisions without such a dispute resolution mechanism.

Ruling Out Productivity? Labor Contract Pages and Plant Performance

This study documents a strong inverse relationship between number of pages of labor contracts in effect and the productivity observed in a sample of ten unionized plants. It is argued that this relationship reflects the productivity-inhibiting effects of increases in the number and complexity of work rules. The study also argues that subsequent research should try to improve the measurement of work rules by considering the substance of the rules and which parameters of a production function the rules are likely to affect.

Micro-Production Functions Aren't Pretty: Firm-Level and Industry-Level Specification For Inputs and Outputs

This study documents extreme variations in productivity within a panel of eleven firms in the same narrowly defined industry classification. Many of the sources of this variation were identified in field investigations of each plant.These investigations in turn allowed for the development of detailed specifications for inputs and outputs using data collected from the sites. The empirical estimates show that, irrespective of the precise functional form adopted, these detailed specifications, particularly those for output heterogeneity, are critical determinants of the performance of plant-level production functions. When the most detailed input and output specifications are used, 95% of the observed variation in plant production is explained. However, when the eleven firms are treated as an industry, less detailed specifications for inputs and outputs are shown to be more appropriate for explaining the variation in industry production.

Collective Bargaining and Compulsory Arbitration: Prescriptions for the Blue Flu

This paper reveals that municipal police departments are much less likely to strike in states that have collective bargaining laws than in states with no police bargaining law or when police bargaining has been outlawed. Unlike previous research which has used the state as the unit of observation, this study examines the municipal level decision to strike for a pooled cross-section of 2998 municipal police departments. Pooled cross-section estimates of this study reveal two important relationships. First, municipalities in states that provide for collective bargaining in any form experience significantly fewer police strikes than do municipalities in environments where there is no law or where police bargaining is specifically outlawed. Second, among states with duty-to- bargain rights for police, those with compulsory arbitration provisions experience significantly fewer strikes. Fixed-effect estimates that consider strike probabilities of the same cities under different statutes qualifies the first finding. Municipalities that experienced a change from a "no law" environment to a bargaining law environment are less likely to experience strikes while in the "no law" environment than are municipalities which have always been in no law environments. However, fixed-effect estimates confirm the finding that a compulsory arbitration provision significantly reduces strike propensities. Interviews with representatives from cities that experienced a police strike suggest that state agencies responsible for the administration of arbitration mechanisms could help avoid strikes by avoiding lengthy delays in the arbitration process after the expiration of contracts.

Fuzzy Frontiers of Production: Evidence of Persistent Inefficiency in Safety Expenditures

This study documents a strong inverse relationship between accident rates and production in a sample of eleven firms in the same narrowly defined industry classification. Given the detailed set of input controls and controls for plant-specific and time-specific factors used in the analysis, the study argues that a theoretical framework that describes firms as operating on well-defined production frontiers is not adequate for providing an entirely accurate interpretation of the basic empirical finding.Three elaborations to the basic production frontier framework are developed and used to interpret the accident-productivity relationship.

Economic Effects of The Firefighters' Union

This is a study of the effects of unionism in the public sector occupation of firefighting. A large and detailed set of data permits the examination of submarkets of this occupation. A before/after methodology is introduced to obtain more precise estimates of union wage differentials. The study's findings are: (1) that there is a greater union effect on fringes than on salaries which indicates a significant alteration in the composition of the compensation package;(2) that the estimates from the before/after methodology confirm the cross-section results which show modest union wage differentials; and ,most significantly, (3) that the union effect varies along different dimensions -- most notably the length of the contractual arrangement between municipality and union.

Have Angels Done More? The Steel Industry Consent Decree

This study analyzes the Consent Decree of the United States' basic steel industry which reformed plant seniority systems to accommodate issues of equal employment opportunity. The plant-by-plant litigation brought under Title VII and Executive Order 11246 is shown to be the main catalyst which brought representatives of the steel industry, of the United Steel Workers of America, and of the appropriate government agencies to negotiate this industry-wide solution. The principal terms of the steel industry Consent Decree are: the establishment of a mechanism to implement the Decree; the uniform institution of plant-wide seniority; the retention of pay rates after transfer to a position that provides a lower pay rate than the previous position; the establishment of goals for minority representation in trade and craft jobs; and a back pay settlement. The analysis of these provisions reveals two related points. Black representation in trade and craft jobs increased in the four year period after the Decree, with an indication that the increase was greater than pre-1974 employment trends would have predicted. However, 1978 black/white employment figures indicate that underutilization of blacks in these positions still persists.