Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Determinants of Right-to-Work laws

I ran across an interesting paper today while reading about an unrelated topic, "The Determinants and Effects of Right-to-Work Laws: A Review of Recent Literature" by William J. Moore. It's from 1998, and the effects part of it doesn't interest me as much, but the determinants part was kind of fun. Poorer states are more likely to adopt right-to-work (RTW) laws, and that's a surprise to me. Typically, unions are a common (at least here in WV) solution to the relative status of poor states, which would make me think that RTW laws would be just that much harder to pass. More urban states are less likely to adopt these laws, and so are non-Southern states. The higher the percentage of female employment increases the chances of passing a RTW law. Education generally doesn't matter.

Right-to-work laws are a hot button topic no matter where or when they get brought up.

Addendum: Sad to hear that Moore passed away in 2006.

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