THE DETERMINANTS AND EFFECTS OF RIGHT-TO-WORK LAWS - A REVIEW OF THE RECENT LITERATURE

I review the recent literature on the determinants and effects of righ t-to-work (RTW) laws. The focus is primarily on the econometric studie s published since the early 1980s. Five major areas of impact are asse ssed: unionization, free riding, union organizing activities and succe sses in NLRB elections, wage structure, and stare industrial developme nt. While individual findings are guile sensitive to model specificati on, the accumulated evidence indicates that RTW laws have at least a s ignificant short-run impact on all of these areas except perhaps wages .