It is argued in many circles that a structural change occurred in U.S. collective bargaining in the 1980s. The authors investigate the extent to which the hiring of replacement workers can account for these changes. For a sample of over 300 major strikes since 1980, they estimate the likelihood...

This article examines the ex post flexibility of US labor contracts during the 1970–95 period by investigating whether unanticipated changes in inflation increase the likelihood of a contract being renegotiated prior to its expiration. We find empirical support for this hypothesis....

A general selection model is estimated in which workers select across four labor markets-private/nonunion, privat e/union, public/nonunion, and public/union. Evidence is found of posi tive selection bias in the private/nonunion sector and of negative se lection bias in the public/union sector....