The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 69 No. 4 1987
Employment Rents and the Incidence of Strikes
Abstract
A new measure of labor market tightness on workers' behavior--the employment rent--is modeled as a determinant of workplace conflict. An empirical estimate of the employment rent--workers' expected cost of job loss--is calculated. It is argued that the cost of job loss affects strike incidence. This relationship is tested by estimating an econometric model of strike incidence for the United States from 1955 to 1983. The cost of job loss is shown to explain a large percentage of the variation in strike incidence. The cost of job loss is a far superior explanatory variable than the unemployment rate, which is commonly used in strike models. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.
- DOI
- 10.2307/1935952
- Volume
- 69
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 584
- Sources
- openalex crossref