Bankruptcy and the Cost of Organized Labor: Evidence from Union Elections
研究工会化如何影响破产中的债券持有人，发现工会选举险胜导致债券价值显著下降，尤其在濒临破产、养老金不足及非工作权利法州。
Unionized workers are entitled to special treatment in bankruptcy court that can be detrimental to other corporate stakeholders, with unsecured creditors standing to lose the most. Using data on union elections, we employ a regression discontinuity design to identify the effect of worker unionization on bondholders in bankruptcy states. Closely won union elections lead to significant bond value losses, especially when firms approach bankruptcy, have underfunded pension plans, and operate in non-RTW law states. Unionization is associated with longer, more convoluted, and costlier bankruptcy court proceedings. Unions depress bondholders’ recovery values as they are assigned seats on creditors’ committees.