This study examines the difficult choice faced by members of a striking bargaining unit between withholding labor or crossing the picket line in violation of the prevailing behavioral norm. Using duration analysis, we test a model of crossing behavior using data on individual football players during the 1987 National Football League strike. A notable finding is that nonwhite players are less willing to cross the picket line if their team union representative is also nonwhite. Willingness to cross the line is also influenced by teammate crossing and proxies for expected career length, demand for current income, and expected benefits from union demands.

This article investigates error properties of survey reports of labor market variables. We use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) Validation Study, a two-wave panel survey of workers employed by a large firm that shared its detailed payroll records. Individuals' reports of annual earnings are fairly accurate. Errors are negatively related to true earnings, reducing bias due to measurement error when earnings are used as an Independent variable. Biases are moderately larger for changes in earnings. Earnings per hour are less reliably reported than annual earnings. Biases in estimating earnings functions are relatively small, but those in labor supply functions may be important. Copyright 1994 by University of Chicago Press.