Public Sector Union and Government Financing

  • Qian HE (Speaker)

Activity: Talks or PresentationsOther Invited Talks or Presentations

Description

Using exogenous shocks that diminish the power of public-sector unions in the US and a differences-in-differences design, we investigate how public sector unions affect government financing costs. We find that the decrease of public sector union power reduces the costs of government financing as indicated by lower municipal bond yields. This effect is more pronounced in states with higher unionization rates or heavier pension liabilities. We further confirm the robustness of our results in a matching-based differences-in-differences design, and we find the consistent results.
Period21 Apr 2021
Event titlePostgraduate Seminar Series
Event typePublic Lecture