TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lee,David
AU  - Mas,Alexandre
TI  - Long-Run Impacts of Unions on Firms: New Evidence from Financial Markets, 1961-1999
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14709
PY  - 2009
Y2  - February 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14709
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14709.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David Lee
Industrial Relations Section
Princeton University
Firestone Library A-16-J
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609/258-9548
Fax: 609/258-2907
E-Mail: davidlee@princeton.edu

Alexandre Mas
Industrial Relations Section
Firestone Library
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609/258-6374
E-Mail: amas@princeton.edu
AB  - We estimate the effect of new unionization on firms' equity value over the 1961-1999 period using a newly assembled sample of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) representation elections matched to stock market data. Event-study estimates show an average union effect on the equity value of the firm equivalent to a cost of at least $40,500 per unionized worker. At the same time, point estimates from a regression-discontinuity design -- comparing the stock market impact of close union election wins to close losses -- are considerably smaller and close to zero. We find a negative relationship between the cumulative abnormal returns and the vote share in support of the union, allowing us to reconcile these seemingly contradictory findings. Using the magnitudes from the analysis, we calibrate a structural "median voter" model of endogenous union determination in order to conduct counterfactual policy simulations of policies that would marginally increase the ease of unionization.
ER  -