This study examines the extent to which strikes impaired productivity in nine manufacturing industries, as well as in other industries linked as suppliers or purchasers to the struck industries, in 1967–81. The analysis shows that strikes were associated with productivity declines of greater statistical significance in the linked industries than in the industries experiencing the strikes. The author concludes that studies using only the individual struck firm or industry as the unit of observation underestimate the impact of strike activity on short-run labor productivity.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BrownCharles, and MedoffJames. 1987. “Trade Unions in the Production Process.”Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 36, No. 3 (January) pp. 241–53.
2.
DenisonEdward F.1983. Accounting for Slower Growth. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.
3.
FlahertySean. 1987. “Strike Activity, Worker Militancy, and Productivity Change in Manufacturing, 1961–1981.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 40, No. 4 (July), pp. 585–600.
4.
GordonRobert J.1987. Macroeconomics. Boston: Little Brown.
5.
JorgensonDale, and SullivanMartin. 1981. “Inflation and Corporate Capital Recovery.” In HultenCharles, ed., Depreciation, Inflation, and the Taxation of Income from Capital. Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute.
6.
KmentaJan. 1971. Econometrics. New York: Macmillan.
7.
McHughRichard J., and LaneJulia. 1983. “The Embodiment Hypothesis: An Interregional Test.”Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 65, No. 2 (May), pp. 323–27.
8.
McHughRichard J., and LaneJulia. 1987. “The Age of Capital, the Age of Utilized Capital, and Tests of the Embodiment Hypothesis.”Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69, No. 2 (May), pp. 362–67.
9.
MorrisonC. J., and BrendtE. R.. 1981. “Short-Run Labor Productivity in a Dynamic Model.”Journal of Econometrics, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 339–65.
10.
NeumannGeorge R., and RederMelvin W.. 1984. “Output and Strike Activity in U.S. Manufacturing: How Large Are the Losses?”Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 37, No. 2 (January), pp. 197–211.
11.
ParksRichard W.1967. “Efficient Estimation of a System of Regression Equations When Disturbances Are Both Serially and Contemporaneously Correlated.”Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 62, No. 1, pp. 500–509.
12.
RederMelvin W., and NeumannGeorge. 1980. “Conflict and Contract: The Case of Strikes.”The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 88, No. 5, pp. 867–86.
13.
U.S. Department of Commerce. 1984. “The Input-Output Structure of the U.S. Economy, 1977.”Survey of Current Business, Vol. 64, No. 5 (May), pp. 42–84.
14.
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 1979. Estimates of Capital Stock for Input-Output Industries. Washington, D.C.: GPO.
