The union wage premium, voice, and nonunion workers’ attitudes: Before and after Japan's lost decade
Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory & Labor-Managed Firms
ISBN: 978-0-85724-453-6, eISBN: 978-0-85724-454-3
Publication date: 25 November 2010
Abstract
In their now classic book What Do Unions Do? Freeman and Medoff (1984) open their discussion as follows (p. 3): “Trade unions are the principal institution of workers in modern capitalistic societies. For over 200 years, since the days of Adam Smith, economists and other social scientists, labor unionists, and businessmen and women have debated the social effects of unionism. Despite the long debate, however, no agreed-upon answer has emerged to the question: What do unions do?” In the remainder of the book, the authors provide a coherent answer to this question and, as a result, What Do Unions Do? has become firmly established as a cornerstone for the economic analysis of labor unions. However, since the first publication of the book, developments have emerged that are inconsistent with Freeman and Medoff's predictions regarding the effectiveness of unions. One such development, for example, is the precipitous decline in union density in many countries around the world; another is the growing importance of, and interest in, alternative forms of employee representation.
Citation
Tsuru, T. (2010), "The union wage premium, voice, and nonunion workers’ attitudes: Before and after Japan's lost decade", Eriksson, T. (Ed.) Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory & Labor-Managed Firms (Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory & Labor-Managed Firms, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 161-204. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0885-3339(2010)0000011011
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited