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Among historians it has become customary to acknowledge that children have always worked. That is, before industrialization children worked, but their work was not deemed a social problem. With industrialization, however, child labor came to be condemned as morally repugnant, economically foolhardy, and socially destructive. Reform efforts were mobilized and, after protracted struggle, children were effectively dispelled from the mines, mills, and factories.

We investigate whether investor anticipation of future performance differs between union and nonunion firms following corporate layoff announcements. Using eventstudy methodology and multivariate regression analysis, we find that the stock market reaction to layoff announcements is negatively related to nonunion firms and positively related to union firms.We investigate whether investor anticipation of future performance differs between union and nonunion firms following corporate layoff announcements. Using eventstudy methodolog y and multivariate reg ression analysis, we find that the stock market reaction to layoff announcements is negatively related to nonunion firms and positively related to union firms.

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Census of Governments (COG) data for 1982 and 1987 were analyzed to assess growth in state and local government unionism in Ohio and Illinois, two states that enacted comprehensive public employee bargaining legislation in 1983. Against a backdrop of stable state and local government unionism across the United States, Ohio and Illinois recorded substantial gains in certain sectors. The greatest gains were observed in sectors that had been only lightly unionized prior to enactment of law. Laws had much less impact on more heavily unionized sectors. In spite of the gains, Ohio and Illinois remain substantially less unionized, on average, than do states that enacted comprehensive bargaining legislation earlier.