and the Bargaining Power of Teachers ' Unions

and the Bargaining Power of Teachers ' Unions 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