More on the Union Scatterplots

Ezra Klein How do unions affect state spending and taxation? ""So there is prima facie evidence that unions may be more effective in their advocacy for how tax revenues are spent rather than the fairness of the tax burden," concludes Pump. I don't want to read too much into these two graphs, as all sorts of other factors could be driving the results (and the non-results). But the findings make sense to me: Republicans (and allied groups) place a very high priority on keeping taxes on the rich down, while Democrats (and allied groups) tend to place a high priority on keeping social spending on the poor up. So in states where unions are strong, Republicans may be putting their energies into beating back progressive tax proposals while unions and Democrats focus on pre-K education."

Kevin Drum wrote about it too, Do Unions Advocate for the Greater Good?

Paul Krugman does his own scatterplot, state population versus the unemployment rate in December 2010. "Yep: small states in general had low unemployment. Not all, of course — there’s Nevada. But the correlation is clear. And this has an interesting implication. If Feyrer and Sacerdote are right, people in the Dakotas, Nebraska and so on are congratulating themselves on their good employment performance, a result of their rock-ribbed self-reliance — when what actually happened is that they got themselves an outsized share of the very stimulus they denounce."