RIGHT-TO-WORK LEGISLATION AND LOCAL LABOR MARKET GROWTH.

Capital investment forms a critical element of community economic exuberance because investment is a necessary condition for local job formation. Within a capitalist system, the state lacks a direct method of intervention in firm decisions over capital investment. Under these conditions state policy instruments must be aimed at enabling state and local governments to enhance their competitive advantage over other localities by reducing costs to capital investments within their jurisdictions. This article examines the effects of one such government relationship between policy instrument on rural labor markets in the U.S. Its primary focus is to evaluate the government enforced "open-shop" legislation, or the "right-to-work" (RTW) clause of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Labor Relations Act in the context to the rate of local employment growth. The study yielded that RTW legislation proved more important for change in concentrated sector employment, and stronger policy measures by the federal government could have a more systematic and acute impact on regional employment change.