Determinants of the Passage of Right-to-Work Laws: An Alternative Interpretation

IN a recent study, "Right-To-Work Laws: A Suggested Economic Rationale,"1 Neil and Catherine Palomba addressed themselves to the question of why some states had adopted right-to-work legislation (RTW) and others had not. The authors hypothesized that all states are under pressure to consider passing RTW legislation because it is generally believed that such legislation "makes a state's labor force more attractive, at the margin, to new industry (and investment) than the labor force of a state with no right-to-work law."2 The Palombas constructed a conceptual model explaining the passage of such legislation in terms of two major variables-the level of economic development and the degree of unionization within a state. They argued: