Revisiting the Occupational Health Impact of Right-to-Work Laws: A Research Note.

IF 3.6 1区社会学 Q1 DEMOGRAPHY

Demography Pub Date : 2024-09-11 DOI:10.1215/00703370-11556182

Emma Zang,Qinyou Hu,Zitong Wang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This research note reevaluates the occupational health impact of right-to-work (RTW) legislation, incorporating recent developments in causal inference techniques. In an era marked by an uptick in the adoption of anti-union legislation and increases in workplace fatalities and injuries, it is particularly urgent to examine the extent to which RTW laws affect workers' health. Using a state-year-level dataset spanning 28 years and collected from multiple data sources, we apply an innovative generalized synthetic control method to overcome several limitations of the traditional two-way fixed-effects approach to examine the effect of RTW laws on occupational fatal injuries as well as various other health outcomes. Robustness checks were conducted using a wide range of alternative methods for two-way fixed-effects adjustments. In contrast with findings from previous studies, we found null effects on occupational fatal injuries, as well as on all other health outcomes. Overall, our results indicate that findings from previous studies are based on very thin empirical evidence, with potentially underestimated standard errors and unobserved confounders. Our results highlight the importance of revisiting research questions using updated methodological tools.

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重新审视工作权法对职业健康的影响：研究说明。

本研究报告结合因果推论技术的最新发展，重新评估了工作权（RTW）立法对职业健康的影响。在反工会立法增多、工作场所伤亡事故增加的时代，研究工作权法对工人健康的影响尤为迫切。我们利用从多个数据源收集到的跨度长达 28 年的州级数据集，采用创新的广义合成控制方法，克服了传统双向固定效应方法的若干局限性，考察了复工法对职业致命伤害以及其他各种健康结果的影响。使用多种双向固定效应调整替代方法进行了稳健性检验。与以往研究结果不同的是，我们发现该法对职业性致命伤害以及所有其他健康结果的影响均为零。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，以往的研究结果基于非常薄弱的经验证据，可能存在低估的标准误差和未观察到的混杂因素。我们的结果凸显了使用最新方法工具重新审视研究问题的重要性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Demography DEMOGRAPHY-

CiteScore

5.90

自引率

2.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： Since its founding in 1964, the journal Demography has mirrored the vitality, diversity, high intellectual standard and wide impact of the field on which it reports. Demography presents the highest quality original research of scholars in a broad range of disciplines, including anthropology, biology, economics, geography, history, psychology, public health, sociology, and statistics. The journal encompasses a wide variety of methodological approaches to population research. Its geographic focus is global, with articles addressing demographic matters from around the planet. Its temporal scope is broad, as represented by research that explores demographic phenomena spanning the ages from the past to the present, and reaching toward the future. Authors whose work is published in Demography benefit from the wide audience of population scientists their research will reach. Also in 2011 Demography remains the most cited journal among population studies and demographic periodicals. Published bimonthly, Demography is the flagship journal of the Population Association of America, reaching the membership of one of the largest professional demographic associations in the world.