Abstract

Many researchers have attempted to find a concrete link between unionization and unemployment. I use panel data regression and simultaneous equation regressions to determine the relationship between unionization and unemployment. Regressions were run on equations which featured private sector and public sector unionization. A separate regression featured public sector unionization but replaced private sector unionization with unionization in the construction industry and manufacturing industry. In all sets of the equation, the unionization variable was also accompanied by a corresponding location quotient, which measures industrial concentration. Both sets of equations also contain and interaction term which test the interaction between unionization and industrial concentration. The project produced surprising conclusions. I did not expect the unionization variable and the interaction term to produce different signs in front of their respective coefficients. This only applied to those results in which the unionization variable and interaction term was statistically significant. Also, in many equations the unionization variable proved to not be statistically significant. This can easily be seen in the equations which featured unionization of the construction industry. Another surprising result involves the minimum wage variable. Recently, scholars who study minimum wage have found no statistically significant effect of minimum wage on unemployment. Results I found support this conclusion and may shed light on the debate over minimum wage.

Notes

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Thesis Completion

2013

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Guldi, Melanie

Degree

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

College

College of Business Administration

Degree Program

Economics

Subjects

Business Administration -- Dissertations, Academic;Dissertations, Academic -- Business Administration

Format

PDF

Identifier

CFH0004433

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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Included in

Economics Commons

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