The Impact of Teachers Unions on State–Level Productivity

Using a reduced form version of a theoretical expansion of Hoxby's (1996) education production model, we investigate whether bargaining teachers unions are a boon or a bust to the economy of the state. We anticipate teachers, being in the public sector veiled from competition, are less likely t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of education finance 2010, Vol.35 (3), p.276-294
Main Authors: Pantuosco, Louis J., Ullrich, Laura D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Audits (Verification)
Class size
Collective Bargaining
Education
Employee productivity
Employees
Employment Practices
Finance
Gross state product
Input Output Analysis
Labor unionization
Marginal products
Measurement Techniques
Personnel Policy
Predictor Variables
Productivity
Public Sector
Salary
Salary Wage Differentials
State Surveys
Teacher salaries
Teachers
Teachers' unions
Tenure
Unions
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Summary:Using a reduced form version of a theoretical expansion of Hoxby's (1996) education production model, we investigate whether bargaining teachers unions are a boon or a bust to the economy of the state. We anticipate teachers, being in the public sector veiled from competition, are less likely to be efficient. Yet, their product, education, enhances worker productivity and total output. If teachers are successful at their task of educating society's youth, their added value could be observed in society's production function. In a given state, gross state product (GSP) measures output from the use of capital and labor resources. By using GSP per employee as a measure of productivity, we find a negative correlation between GSP per employee and the percentage of unionized teachers within states where bargaining is permitted. Furthermore, we confirm a positive wage effect of teachers unions on state productivity. In addition, we investigate whether the negative changes in state GSP per employee and the positive wage effect offset each other in states with bargaining teachers unions.
ISSN:0098-9495
1944-6470
1944-6470
DOI:10.1353/jef.0.0014