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TITLE: School Board Politics, School District Size, and the Bargaining Power of the Teachers’ Unions

AUTHORS: Heather Rose and Jon Sonstelie

PAGES: 51      DATE: May 2006

ABSTRACT: This paper develops a public-choice model of the bargaining power of teachers' unions. The model predicts that the power of the unions rises with the number of eligible voters in a district. As a bargaining outcome reflecting this power, we use the experience premium for teachers. The premium is defined as the difference in salary between experienced and inexperienced teachers. For a sample of 771 California school districts in 1999-2000, a district's premium is positively related to the number of voters, a finding consistent with the model's prediction.

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