Public sector unions around the world are under threat from political forces. Combined, the financial crisis and austerity measures have challenged public sector unions’ legitimacy. In the U.S., the postrecession assault on public sector unions is rooted in political ideology, with not only a...

In this paper, we examine and compare the impact of American and Japanese labor law on the relative bargaining power of the labor and management within the context of the new global economy based on information technology. We begin by providing a simple economic definition of bargaining power...

We study how labor market conditions affect unionization decisions. Tight labor markets might spur unionization, e.g., by reducing the threat of unemployment after management opposition or employer retaliation in response to a unionization attempt. Tightness might also weaken unionization by...

This paper uses state fixed effect models and a Synthetic Control design with Current Population Survey (CPS) data to identify the impact of state Right-to-Work (RTW) laws on wages, benefits, and union status among private and public sector workers. Despite a modest effect of RTW laws on wages,...

The United States has experienced a significant decline in labor unions over the past half-century. We examine the aggregate labor market impact of labor unions, the causes of their decline, and their welfare and distributional consequences, accounting for unions' effects on wages and employers'...

The labor economics literature has shown that the "efficient bargaining" model, in which wage and employment are negotiated simultaneously, is less frequently used on unionized markets than the less efficient "right-to-manage" model, in which wage is determined via bargaining and employment...

The relationship between American working women and the U.S. labor movement can neither be easily described nor categorized. In part, this is because women's participation and experience in the labor movement differ so greatly across industry, region, union, occupation, and ethnic background....

The inclusion of labor-related provisions in US Free Trade Agreements has been a contentious issue. They have been attacked both for allegedly weakening the comparative advantage of developing and emerging countries; and for being too weak and inconsistent with the recommendations of the...

Global Union Federations have made significant progress in advancing Global Framework Agreements (GFAs) that create arenas for labor relations based on the Core Labor Standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO). These Agreements – signed and implemented by labor and management –...

This Article analyzes whether an NFL player who protests during the national anthem has any legal recourse if he is fired—or not hired—as a result of his political protests. Part I of this Article describes the history of NFL players engaging in political protests during the national anthem....