Testing the Efficiency of Employment Contracts

Abstract

This paper presents data on airline mechanics at eight of the largest U.S. airlines and describes the impact of the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act on their wage rates and employment levels. The major findings are: (1) up to 1983, real and relative wage rates of airline mechanics remained more or less constant across firms and over time; (2) the independence of mechanics’ wage rates from firm-specific employment conditions after 1978 is consistent with pre-deregulatory experiences; (3) deregulation contributed to an existing trend of declining employment; and (4) deregulation did not bring about any systematic increase in mechanics’ productivity.