Whereas most recent research examining the effects of the NLRA on labor-management relations has focused on the impact of specific provisions of the law, this study provides an estimate of the impact of the passage of the NLRA on 75 firms that were at great risk of being unionized in the 1930s. Taking changes in shareholder wealth as a measure of the shift in the balance of power caused by the NLRA, the authors find that the passage of the NLRA caused a statistically and economically significant decline in shareholder wealth for the sampled firms. Specifically, by April 1937, stockholder wealth in the firms was 15.9% lower than would have been expected had the NLRA not been enacted.
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