Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
工会与绝望之死：来自工作权法的证据
Labor unions and deaths of despair: Evidence from right-to-work laws
摘要
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 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) difference-in-differences (DiD) estimates suggest that the adoption of a right-to-work law is associated with a 2.6 percentage point reduction in union membership and an increase in deaths of despair mortality of 13 additional persons per 100,000, implying there are approximately 7.5 additional deaths of despair for every 1,000 workers who lose union membership. An analysis of mechanisms suggests the increase in mortality is largely driven by increased opioid usage and a concomitant increase in overdose deaths. I support the TWFE results with estimates from two alternative estimators robust to concerns about treatment effect heterogeneity and variation in treatment timing. Estimates from the Callaway and Sant'Anna (2021) estimator and the Borusyak et al. (2024) estimator support the TWFE findings: right-to-work laws reduce union membership and increase deaths of despair.
中文摘要
本文考察了工会会员身份与绝望死亡之间的关系。利用各州采纳工作权法时间上的差异作为自然实验，我表明工作权法与工会会员身份的下降及绝望死亡的增加相关联。双向固定效应（TWFE）双重差分（DiD）估计显示，采纳工作权法与工会会员身份降低2.6个百分点及绝望死亡死亡率每10万人增加13人相关，这意味着每1000名失去工会会员身份的工人中，大约有7.5例额外的绝望死亡。机制分析表明，死亡率的增加主要由阿片类药物使用增加及随之而来的过量死亡增加所驱动。我通过两种对处理效应异质性和处理时间变化具有稳健性的替代估计器来支持TWFE结果。来自Callaway和Sant’Anna（2021）估计器及Borusyak等人（2024）估计器的估计支持TWFE发现：工作权法减少了工会会员身份并增加了绝望死亡。