TY - JOUR AU - DiNardo,John AU - Lee,David S. TI - Economic Impacts of Unionization on Private Sector Employers: 1984-2001 JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 10598 PY - 2004 Y2 - July 2004 DO - 10.3386/w10598 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10598 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10598.pdf N1 - Author contact info: John DiNardo E-Mail: N/A user is deceased David Lee Princeton University 4 Nassau Hall Princeton, NJ 08544J Tel: 609/258-9548 Fax: 609/258-2907 E-Mail: davidlee@princeton.edu AB - Economic impacts of unionization on employers are difficult to estimate in the absence of large, representative data on establishments with union status information. Estimates are also confounded by selection bias, because unions could organize at highly profitable enterprises that are more likely to grow and pay higher wages. Using multiple establishment-level data sets that represent establishments that faced organizing drives in the U.S. during 1984-1999, this paper uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the impact of unionization on business survival, employment, output, productivity, and wages. Essentially, outcomes for employers where unions barely won the election (e.g. by one vote) are compared to those where the unions barely lost. The analysis finds small impacts on all outcomes that we examine; estimates for wages are close to zero. The evidence suggests that at least in recent decades the legal mandate that requires the employer to bargain with a certified union has had little economic impact on employers, because unions have been somewhat unsuccessful at securing significant wage gains. ER -