TY  - JOUR
AU  - Blanchflower,David G.
AU  - Freeman,Richard B.
TI  - Going Different Ways:  Unionism in the U.S. and Other Advanced O.E.C.D. Countries
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3342
PY  - 1990
Y2  - April 1990
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3342
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3342.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David G. Blanchflower
Bruce V. Rauner Professor of Economics
6106 Rockefeller Hall
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH  03755-3514
Tel: 603/646-2536
Fax: 603/646-2122
E-Mail: David.G.Blanchflower@Dartmouth.EDU

Richard B. Freeman
NBER
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/868-3900
Fax: 617/868-2742
E-Mail: freeman@nber.org
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1990-08-01
AB  - In this paper we compare the changing pattern of unionization in OECD countries, review existing evidence, and present new information on cross-country differences in union-nonunion differentials in labor market outcomes, largely from the micro data files of the International Social Survey Programme cross-country surveys of 1985-87. Our analysis shows that American unions have a larger effect on wages but not on other outcomes than unions in other countries. We argue that the high union premium in the U.S. contributed to the decline in U.S. union density and to the consequent divergence of the U.S. industrial relations system from those in most OECD countries. Looking to the future, our findings suggest that U.S. unions must make major innovations in their tactics and policies to regain a position of strength in the private sector and that the nation will have to develop new industrial relations institutions to avoid the Congress and the judiciary intervening frequently in workplace decisions.
ER  -