Publication Bias in Union-Productivity Research?

This paper develops and applies several meta-analytic techniques to investigate the presence of publication bias in industrial relations research, specifically in the union-productivity effects literature. Publication bias arises when statistically insignificant results are suppressed or when result...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations Vol. 60; no. 2; pp. 320 - 348
Main Authors: Doucouliagos, Hristos, Laroche, Patrice, Stanley, T. D.
Format: Article
Published: Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations 2005
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:This paper develops and applies several meta-analytic techniques to investigate the presence of publication bias in industrial relations research, specifically in the union-productivity effects literature. Publication bias arises when statistically insignificant results are suppressed or when results satisfying prior expectations are given preference. Like most fields, research in industrial relations is vulnerable to publication bias. Unlike other fields such as economics, there is no evidence of publication bias in the union-productivity literature, as a whole. However, there are pockets of publication selection, as well as negative autoregression, confirming the controversial nature of this area of research. Meta-regression analysis reveals evidence of publication bias (or selection) among U.S. studies. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.