Bitte verwenden Sie diesen Link, um diese Publikation zu zitieren, oder auf sie als Internetquelle zu verweisen: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/338967 
Autor:innen: 
Erscheinungsjahr: 
2026
Schriftenreihe/Nr.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 1729
Verlag: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Zusammenfassung: 
This paper examines the relationship between union membership and deaths of despair. Using state-level variation in the timing of the adoption of right-to-work (RTW) laws as a natural experiment, I show that right-to-work laws are associated with a decline in union membership and an increase in deaths of despair. Two-way fixed-effects (TWFE) differencein- differences (DiD) estimates suggest that the adoption of a right-to-work law is associated with an approximately 2.6 percentage point reduction in union membership at the state-level and an increase in deaths of despair mortality between 12 and 13 additional persons per 100,000, suggesting that each percentage point decline in union membership is associated with approximately five additional deaths from suicide, drug overdose, or alcoholic liver disease per 100,000 persons. I support the TWFE results with state-level estimates from the Callaway and Sant'Anna (2021) estimator and the Borusyak et al. (2024) estimator, which are robust to concerns about treatment effect heterogeneity and variation in treatment timing. Estimates from a county-level specification using the Callaway and Sant'Anna (2021) estimator similarly suggest that RTW laws increase deaths of despair mortality by 6 to 11 additional persons per 100,000.
Schlagwörter: 
Labor Unions
Right-to-Work Laws
Deaths of Despair
Health Economics
Labor Economics
JEL: 
J51
I12
I14
Dokumentart: 
Working Paper

Datei(en):
Datei
Größe
1.27 MB





Publikationen in EconStor sind urheberrechtlich geschützt.