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The Social Cost of Rent Seeking by Labor Unions in the United States
Author(s) -
STEVENS CARL M.
Publication year - 1995
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/j.1468-232x.1995.tb00368.x
Subject(s) - monopoly , labour economics , dividend , economics , welfare , order (exchange) , investment (military) , social welfare , collective bargaining , social cost , deadweight loss , wage , market economy , business , microeconomics , finance , political science , law , politics
The conventional welfare loss to trade unions and collective bargaining has been put at some fraction of 1.0 percent. Added to this should be the costs of resources deployed by the parties as they compete for monopoly gains. These additional social costs turn out to be on the same order as the conventional welfare loss. The analysis finds in passing that the investment by union members in paying dues yields very handsome dividends.