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Unionization and Productivity: Evidence from Charter Schools
Author(s) -
Hart Cassandra M.D.,
Sojourner Aaron J.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
industrial relations: a journal of economy and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.61
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1468-232X
pISSN - 0019-8676
DOI - 10.1111/irel.12097
Subject(s) - charter school , certification , productivity , student achievement , charter , demographic economics , political science , aside , production (economics) , mathematics education , economics , academic achievement , psychology , economic growth , law , art , literature , macroeconomics
This paper studies the relationship between teacher unionization and student achievement. Generally stable patterns of teacher unionization since the 1970s have historically presented challenges in measuring the effects of unionization on educational production. However, the blossoming of the charter school sector in recent decades provides fertile ground for study because while most charters are nonunion, teachers at some charters have unionized. Using a generalized difference‐in‐difference approach combining California union certification data with student achievement data from 2003–2012, we find that, aside from a one‐year dip in achievement associated with the unionization process itself, unionization does not affect student achievement.