Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T15:59:21.801Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do Anti-Union Policies Increase Inequality? Evidence from State Adoption of Right-to-Work Laws

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Vladimir Kogan
Vladimir Kogan*
Affiliation:
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
*
Vladimir Kogan, Department of Political Science, Ohio State University, 2140 Derby Hall, 154 N. Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210-1373, USA. Email: kogan.18@osu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The distribution of income lies at the intersection of states and markets, both influencing and responding to government policy. Reflecting this reality, increasing research focuses on the political origins of inequality in the United States. However, the literature largely assumes—rather than tests—the political mechanisms thought to affect the income gap. This study provides a timely reassessment of one such mechanism. Leveraging variation in labor laws between states and differences in the timing of adoption of right-to-work (RTW) legislation, I examine one political mechanism blamed by many for contributing to inequality. Using a variety of panel designs, I find little evidence that RTW laws have been a major cause of growing income inequality, pointing to the importance of grounding theoretical arguments about the interrelationships between states and markets in a sound empirical reality.

Keywords

political economyincome inequalityright-to-work lawsunionsstate politics
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 180 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abadie, Alberto, Diamond, Alexis, and Hainmueller, Jens. 2010. “Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California's Tobacco Control Program.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 105 (490): 493–505..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abadie, Alberto, Diamond, Alexis, and Hainmueller, Jens. 2015. “Comparative Politics and Synthetic Control.” American Journal of Political Science 59 (2): 495–510..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abraham, Steven E., and Voos, Paula B.. 2000. “Right-to-Work Laws: New Evidence from the Stock Market.” Southern Economic Journal 67 (2): 345–62..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alderson, Arthur S., and Nielsen, François. 2002. “Globalization and the Great U-Turn: Income Inequality Trends in 16 OECD Countries.” American Journal of Sociology 107 (5): 1244–99..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angrist, Joshua D., and Pischke, Jörn-Steffen. 2009. Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Autor, David H., Manning, Alan, and Smith, Christopher L.. 2016. “The Contribution of the Minimum Wage to U.S. Inequality over Three Decades: A Reassessment.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 8 (1): 58–99..Google Scholar
Baird, Charles W. 1998. “Right to Work before and after 14(b).” Journal of Labor Research 19 (3): 471–93..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, Larry M. 2008. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of a New Gilded Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Checchi, Daniele, García-Penalosa, Cecilia, Petrongolo, Barbara, and Zweimüller, Josef. 2008. “Labour Market Institutions and Income Inequality.” Economic Policy 23 (56): 601–49..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chintrakar, P. 2011. “Labor Unions and Income Inequality: Evidence from U.S. States.” Journal of Applied Sciences 11 (20): 3530–33..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Joe C., and Huston, John H.. 1995. “Right-to-Work Laws and Union Density: New Evidence from Micro Data.” Journal of Labor Research 16 (2): 223–29..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dixon, Marc. 2005. “The Politics of Union Decline: Business Political Mobilization and Restrictive Labor Legislation, 1938 to 1960.” PhD diss., Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Ellwood, David T., and Fine, Glenn. 1987. “The Impact of Right-to-Work Laws on Union Organizing.” Journal of Political Economy 95 (2): 250–73..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enns, Peter K., Kelly, Nathan J., Morgan, Jana, Volscho, Thomas, and Witko, Christopher. 2014. “Conditional Status Quo Bias and Top Income Shares: How U.S. Political Institutions Have Benefited the Rich.” Journal of Politics 76 (2): 289–303..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eren, Ozkan, and Ozbeklik, Serkan. 2016. “What Do Right-to-Work Laws Do? Evidence from a Synthetic Control Method Analysis.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 35 (1): 173–94..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farber, Henry S. 1984. “Right-to-Work Laws and the Extent of Unionization.” Journal of Labor Economics 2 (3): 319–52..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farber, Henry S. 2005. “Nonunion Wage Rates and the Threat of Unionization.” Industrial & Labor Relations Review 58 (3): 335–52..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, Mark W. 2014. “A New State-Level Panel of Annual Inequality Measures over the Period 1916–2005.” Journal of Business Strategies 31 (1): 241–63..Google Scholar
Gilman, Michele. 2014. “A Court for the One Percent: How the Supreme Court Contributes to Economic Inequality.” Utah Law Review 1:389–463.Google Scholar
Hacker, Jacob S., and Pierson, Paul. 2010. Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Hanley, Caroline. 2010. “Earnings Inequality and Subnational Political Economy in the United States, 1970–2000.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 28 (2): 251–73..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, Thomas J., and Xavier Medina Vidal, D.. 2015. “Fiscal Policy and Economic Inequality in the U.S. States: Taxing and Spending from 1976 to 2006.” Political Research Quarterly 68:392–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ichniowski, Casey, and Zax, Jeffrey S.. 1991. “Right-to-Work Laws, Free Riders, and Unionization in the Local Public Sector.” Journal of Labor Economics 9 (3): 255–75..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iversen, Torben, and Soskice, David. 2006. “Electoral Institutions and the Politics of Coalitions: Why Some Democracies Redistribute More than Others.” American Political Science Review 100 (2): 165–81..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Nathan J. 2005. “Political Choice, Public Policy, and Distributional Outcomes.” American Journal of Political Science 49:865–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Nathan J. 2009. The Politics of Income Inequality in the United States. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Nathan J., and Witko, Christopher. 2012. “Federalism and American Inequality.” Journal of Politics 74:414–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krugman, Paul. 2007. The Conscience of a Liberal. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Leighley, Jan E., and Nagler, Jonathan. 2007. “Unions, Voter Turnout, and Class Bias in the U.S. Electorate, 1964–2004.” Journal of Politics 69 (2): 430–41..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lumsden, Keith, and Petersen, Craig. 1975. “The Effect of Right-to-Work Laws on Unionization in the United States.” Journal of Political Economy 83 (6): 1237–48..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manzo, Frank IV, and Bruno, Robert. 2014. “Which Labor Market Institutions Reduce Income Inequality? Labor Unions, Prevailing Wage Laws, and Right-to-Work Laws in the Construction Industry.” Illinois Economic Policy Institute, La Grange.Google Scholar
McCarty, Nolan, Poole, Keith, and Rosenthal, Howard. 2006. Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Moore, William J. 1998. “The Determinants and Effects of Right-to-Work Laws: A Review of the Recent Literature.” Journal of Labor Research 19 (3): 445–69..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, William J., and Newman, Robert J.. 1985. “The Effects of Right-to-Work Laws: A Review of the Literature.” Industrial & Labor Relations Review 38 (4): 571–85..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, Robert J. 1984. Growth in the American South. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Nieswiadomy, Michael, Slottje, Daniel J., and Hayes, Kathy. 1991. “The Impact of Unionization, Right-to-Work Laws, and Female Labor Force Participation on Earnings Inequality across States.” Journal of Labor Research 12 (2): 185–95..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas, and Saez, Emmanuel. 2003. “Income Inequality in the United States, 1913–1998.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 118 (1): 1–39..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rinz, Kevin. 2015. “The Effects of ‘Right to Work’ Laws on Wages: Evidence from the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.” Unpublished manuscript, Department of Economics, University of Notre Dame.Google Scholar
Rosenbaum, Paul R. 1984. “The Consequence of Adjustment for a Concomitant Variable that Has Been Affected by the Treatment.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (General) 147 (5): 656–66..Google Scholar
Smith, Daniel A., and Fridkin, Dustin. 2008. “Delegating Direct Democracy: Interparty Legislative Competition and the Adoption of the Initiative in the American States.” American Political Science Review 102 (3): 333–50..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Western, Bruce, and Rosenfeld, Jake. 2011. “Unions, Norms, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality.” American Sociological Review 76 (4): 513–37..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zax, Jeffrey S., and Ichniowski, Casey. 1990. “Bargaining Laws and Unionization in the Local Public Sector.” Industrial & Labor Relations Review 43 (4): 447–62..CrossRefGoogle Scholar