Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory & Labor-Managed Firms

In their now classic book What Do Unions Do? Freeman and Medoff (1984) open their discussion as follows (p. 3): “Trade unions are the principal institution of workers in modern capitalistic societies. For over 200 years, since the days of Adam Smith, economists and other social scientists, labor unionists, and businessmen and women have debated the social effects of unionism. Despite the long debate, however, no agreed-upon answer has emerged to the question: What do unions do?” In the remainder of the book, the authors provide a coherent answer to this question and, as a result, What Do Unions Do? has become firmly established as a cornerstone for the economic analysis of labor unions. However, since the first publication of the book, developments have emerged that are inconsistent with Freeman and Medoff's predictions regarding the effectiveness of unions. One such development, for example, is the precipitous decline in union density in many countries around the world; another is the growing importance of, and interest in, alternative forms of employee representation.