The Effect of Right-to-Work Laws on Subjective Well-Being: A Case Study of Oklahoma

Using Oklahoma as a case study, this thesis applies a synthetic controls model to investigate the causal effect of right-to-work (RTW) laws on the well-being of the total population with a particular focus on the most affected subset, blue-collar workers and the less educated. The effect of RTW laws leads to a significant decrease in the happiness of blue-collar workers. To be specific, while results show a possible increase in unhappiness in the total population immediately following the adoption of the RTW law, for the more vulnerable blue-collar workers, the statistically significant negative effect of the law on happiness is observed not only immediately after adoption but remains persistent for a decade after