TY  - JOUR
AU  - DiNardo,John
AU  - Hallock,Kevin F.
TI  - When Unions "Mattered":  Assessing the Impact of Strikes on Financial Markets: 1925-1937
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7794
PY  - 2000
Y2  - July 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7794
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7794.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John DiNardo
Ford School of Public Policy
5238 Weill Hall
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-3091
Tel: 734/647-7843
Fax: 734/763-9181
E-Mail: jdinardo@umich.edu

Kevin F. Hallock
ILR School
Cornell University
391 Ives Hall (East)
Ithaca, NY 14853
Tel: 607/255-3193
E-Mail:  kfh7@cornell.edu
AB  - Combining information from labor historians and using techniques from finance we analyze the strikes  that labor historians have agreed are pivotal in American history' during the period 1925-1937. Using information we collected on strike dates and historical financial market stock price data we assess the financial market's view of these conflicts. We study the effects of major strikes between the world wars on detailed industry stock prices. We find that strikes have large, negative effects on industry stock value. We also find that longer strikes, violent strikes, strikes where unions  win,' industry-wide strikes, strikes that lead to union recognition, and strikes that lead to large wage increases lead to larger negative share price reactions than other strikes. Also, our analysis shows that most of the  news' in a strike seems to be incorporated very early on in the strike. Our analysis strongly suggests that although the financial markets generally expected unions to  lose,' they viewed union victories as quite important determinants of the share of firm profits going to stockholders.
ER  -