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Abstract:
In two papers, Meyer and Wise (1983a,b) present an ingenious method for estimating the effect of minimum wage rates on wages and employment using data based only on the observed cross-sectional distribution of wages. They, and others who have used this method, have generally found that the minimum wage causes substantial losses in employment. In this paper we evaluate the robustness of this technique. We argue that the estimates, at least for the UK, are very sensitive to the functional form assumed for the distribution of wages and to the assumption made about how far up the wage distribution the minimum wage has spillover effects.

Abstract:
Demand for less skilled workers decreased dramatically in the US and in other developed countries over the past two decades. We argue that pervasive skill-biased technological change rather than increased trade with the developing world is the principal culprit. The pervasiveness of this technological change is important for two reasons. First, it is an immediate and testable implication of technological change. Second, under standard assumptions, the more pervasive the skill-biased technological change the greater the increase in the embodied supply of less skilled workers and the greater the depressing effect on their relative wages through world goods prices. In contrast, in the Heckscher-Ohlin model with small open economies, the skill-bias of local technological changes does not affect wages. Thus, pervasiveness deals with a major criticism of skill-biased technological change as a cause. Testing the implications of pervasive, skill-biased technological change we find strong supporting evidence. First, across the OECD, most industries have increased the proportion of skilled workers employed despite rising or stable relative wages. Second, increases in demand for skills were concentrated in the same manufacturing industries in different developed countries.

Abstract:
Demand for less skilled workers plummeted in developed countries in the 1980s. In open economies, pervasive skill biased technological change (SBTC) can explain this decline. The more countries experiencing a SBTC the greater its potential to decrease local demands for unskilled labor by increasing the world supply of unskilled-intensive goods. We find strong evidence for pervasive SBTC in developed countries. Most industries increased the proportion of skilled workers despite generally rising or stable relative wages. Moreover, the same manufacturing industries simultaneously increased demand for skills in different countries. Many developing countries also show increased skill premia, a pattern consistent with SBTC.

Abstract:
Demand for less skilled workers plummeted in developed countries in the 1980s. In open economies, pervasive skill biased technological change (SBTC) can explain this decline. The more countries experiencing a SBTC the greater its potential to decrease local demands for unskilled labor by increasing the world supply of unskilled-intensive goods. We find strong evidence for pervasive SBTC in developed countries. Most industries increased the proportion of skilled workers despite generally rising or stable relative wages. Moreover, the same manufacturing industries simultaneously increased demand for skills in different countries. Many developing countries also show increased skill premia, a pattern consistent with SBTC.

Abstract:
Although there is a large literature on the economic effects of minimum wages on labour market outcomes (especially employment), there is much less evidence on their impact on firm performance. In this paper we consider a very under-studied area - the impact of minimum wages on firm profitability. The analysis exploits the changes induced by the introduction of a national minimum wage to the UK labour market in 1999, using pre-policy information on the distribution of wages to construct treatment and comparison groups and implement a difference in differences approach. We report evidence showing that firm profitability was significantly reduced (and wages significantly raised) by the minimum wage introduction. This emerges from separate analyses of two distinct types of firm level panel data (one on firms in a very low wage sector, UK residential care homes, and a second on firms across all sectors). We find that net entry rates have fallen, but that the changes in exit and entry rates are statistically insignificant.

Abstract:
Although there is a large literature on the economic effects of minimum wages on labour market outcomes (especially employment), there is hardly any evidence on their impact on firm performance. This is surprising: minimum wages appear to have a significant impact on wages, but only a limited impact on jobs, so it is natural to imagine there must be a stronger impact on other aspects of firm behaviour. In this paper we consider the impact of minimum wages on firm profitability by exploiting the introduction of a minimum wage to the UK labour market in 1999. We use pre-policy information on the distribution of wages to construct treatment and comparison groups and implement a difference in differences approach. We show evidence that firm profitability was significantly reduced (and wages significantly raised) by the minimum wage introduction. This emerges from separate analyses of two distinct types of firm level panel data (one on firms in a very low wage sector, UK residential care homes, and a second on firms across all sectors). Interestingly, we find no evidence that the profitability reductions resulted in increases in firm exit, so our findings may be consistent with redistribution of quasi-rents towards low wage employees.

Minimum wage, profitability, exit

Abstract:
Although there is a large literature on the economic effects of minimum wages on labour market outcomes (especially employment), there is hardly any evidence on their impact on firm performance. This is surprising: minimum wages appear to have a significant impact on wages, but only a limited impact on jobs, so it is natural to imagine there must be a stronger impact on other aspects of firm behaviour. In this paper we consider the impact of minimum wages on firm profitability by exploiting the introduction of a minimum wage to the UK labour market in 1999. We use pre-policy information on the distribution of wages to construct treatment and comparison groups and implement a difference in differences approach. We show evidence that firm profitability was significantly reduced (and wages significantly raised) by the minimum wage introduction. This emerges from separate analyses of two distinct types of firm level panel data (one on firms in a very low wage sector, UK residential care homes, and a second on firms across all sectors). Interestingly, we find no evidence that the profitability reductions resulted in increases in firm exit, so our findings may be consistent with redistribution of quasi-rents towards low wage employees.

minimum wage, profitability, exit

Abstract:
In this paper we look at links between police resources and crime in a different way to the existing economics of crime work. To do so we focus on a large-scale policy intervention - the Street Crime Initiative - that was introduced in England and Wales in 2002. This allocated additional resources to some police force areas to combat street crime, whereas other forces did not receive any additional funding. Estimates derived from several empirical strategies show that robberies fell significantly in SCI police forces relative to non-SCI forces after the initiative was introduced. Moreover, the policy seems to have been a cost effective one, even after allowing for possible displacement or diffusion effects onto other crimes and adjacent areas. There is some heterogeneity in this positive net social benefit across different SCI police forces, suggesting that some police forces may have made better use of the extra resources than others. Overall, we reach the conclusion that increased police resources do in fact lead to lower crime, at least in the context of the SCI programme we study.

Street crime, police resources, cost effectiveness

Abstract:
In this paper we look at links between police resources and crime in a different way to the existing economics of crime work. To do so we focus on a large-scale policy intervention - the Street Crime Initiative - that was introduced in England and Wales in 2002. This allocated additional resources to some police force areas to combat street crime, whereas other forces did not receive any additional funding. Estimates derived from several empirical strategies show that robberies fell significantly in SCI police forces relative to non-SCI forces after the initiative was introduced. Moreover, the policy seems to have been a cost effective one, even after allowing for possible displacement or diffusion effects onto other crimes and adjacent areas. There is some heterogeneity in this positive net social benefit across different SCI police forces, suggesting that some police forces may have made better use of the extra resources than others. Overall, we reach the conclusion that increased police resources do in fact lead to lower crime, at least in the context of the SCI programme we study.

street crime, police resources, cost effectiveness

Abstract:
We show that controlling for subject of degree explains a significant part of the male/female gender wage differential amongst graduates. Using data from the labour force surveys of the United Kingdom and Germany, we find similar results in these two countries: subject of degree explains about 2-4 percent higher wages of male over female graduates after controlling for age, industry, region, part-time and public sector employment. This is a significant part (between 9 to 19 percent) of the overall male/female gender wage gap, and an even larger amount of the part explained by factors entered into wage equations (at around 20 to 29 percent of the explained component).

Gender Wage Gap, Field of Major

Abstract:
In this paper, we evaluate the effect of the literacy hour in English primary schools on pupil attainment. The National Literacy Project (NLP) was undertaken in about 400 English primary schools in 1997 and 1998. We compare the reading and overall English attainment of children in NLP schools as compared to a set of control schools at the end of primary school education (age 11). We also compare the overall English performance of these children when they have reached the end of their compulsory education (age 16). We find a larger increase in attainment in reading and English for pupils in NLP schools as compared to pupils not exposed to the literacy hour between 1996 and 1998. We also find modest, but positive effects from exposure to the literacy hour that persist to age 16, as GCSE English performance is seen to be higher for children affected by the NLP introduction. Since there are gender gaps in English performance (in favour of girls), we consider whether the literacy hour has had a differential impact by gender. We find some evidence that at age 11, boys received a greater benefit than girls. Finally, we show the policy to be cost effective. These findings are of strong significance when placed into the wider education debate about what works best in schools for improving pupil performance. The evidence reported here suggests that public policy aimed at changing the content and structure of teaching can significantly raise pupil attainment.

literacy hour, English, reading

Abstract:
Despite its high relevance to current policy debates, estimating the causal effect of Information Communication Technology (ICT) investment on educational standards remains fraught with difficulties. In this paper, we exploit a change in the rules governing ICT funding across different school districts of England to devise an instrumental variable strategy to identify the causal impact of ICT expenditure on pupil outcomes. The approach identifies the effect of being a 'winner' or a 'loser' in the new system of ICT funding allocation to schools. Our findings suggest a positive impact on primary school performance in English and Science, though not for Mathematics. We reconcile our positive results with others in the literature by arguing that it is the joint effect of large increases in ICT funding coupled with a fertile background for making an efficient use of it that led to positive effects of ICT expenditure on educational performance in English primary schools.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT), pupil achievement

Abstract:
This study develops an analytical framework for evaluating the respective contributions of pupils, peers, and school quality in affecting educational achievement. We implement this framework using rich data from England that matches pupils to their primary schools. The dataset records all English pupils and their test scores in Key Stage 1 (age 7) and Key Stage 2 (age 11) national examinations. The quality of the data source, coupled with our econometric techniques, allows us to assess the respective importance of different educational inputs. We can distinguish school effects, that affect all pupils irrespective of their year and grade of study, from school-grade-year effects. Identification of pupil effects separately from these school-grade-year effects is achieved because students are mobile across schools. Peer effects are identified assuming variations in school-grade-year group composition in adjacent years are exogenous. We estimate three different specifications, the most general allowing Key Stage 2 results to be affected by the Key Stage 1 school(-grade-year) at which the pupil studied. We discuss the validity of our various exogeneity assumptions. Estimation results show statistically significant pupil ability, school and peer effects. Our analysis suggests the following ranking: pupils' ability and background are more important than school time-invariant inputs. Peer effects are significant, but small.

education, peer effects, school effects, school quality

Abstract:
This study develops an analytical framework for evaluating the respective contributions of pupils, peers, and school quality in affecting educational achievement. We implement this framework using rich data from England that matches pupils to their primary schools. The dataset records all English pupils and their test scores in Key Stage 1 (age 7) and Key Stage 2 (age 11) national examinations. The quality of the data source, coupled with our econometric techniques, allows us to assess the respective importance of different educational inputs. We can distinguish school effects, that affect all pupils irrespective of their year and grade of study, from school-grade-year effects. Identification of pupil effects separately from these school-grade-year effects is achieved because students are mobile across schools. Peer effects are identified assuming variations in school-grade-year group composition in adjacent years are exogenous. We estimate three different specifications, the most general allowing Key Stage 2 results to be affected by the Key Stage 1 school(-grade-year) at which the pupil studied. We discuss the validity of our various exogeneity assumptions. Estimation results show statistically significant pupil ability, school and peer effects. Our analysis suggests the following ranking: pupils' ability and background are more important than school time-invariant inputs. Peer effects are significant, but small.

Education, Accountability, Inequalities, Fixed Effects, Peer Effects, School Quality, Early Education

Abstract:
Choice and competition in education have found growing support from both policy makers and academics in the recent past. Yet, evidence on the actual benefits of market-oriented reforms is at best mixed. Moreover, while the economic rationale for choice and competition is clear, in existing work there is rarely an attempt to distinguish between the two concepts. In this paper, we study whether pupils in Primary schools in England with a wider range of school choices achieve better academic outcomes than those whose choice is more limited; and whether Primary schools facing more competition perform better than those in a more monopolistic situation. In simple least squares regression models, we find little evidence of a link between choice and achievement, but uncover a small positive association between competition and school performance. Yet, this could be related to endogenous school location or pupil sorting. In fact, an instrumental variable strategy based on discontinuities generated by admissions district boundaries suggests that the performance gains from greater school competition are limited. Only when we restrict our attention to Faith autonomous schools, which have more freedom in managing their admission practices and governance, do we find evidence of a positive causal link between competition and pupil achievement.

choice, competition, primary schools, pupil achievement

Abstract:
We show that controlling for subject of degree explains a significant part of the male/female gender wage differential amongst graduates. Using data from the labour force surveys of the United Kingdom and Germany, we find similar results in these two countries: Subject of degree explains about 2-4 percent higher wages of male over female graduates after controlling for age, industry, region, part-time and public sector employment. This is a significant part (between 8 to 20 percent) of the overall male/female gender wage gap, and an even larger amount of the part explained by factors entered into wage equations (at around 24 to 30 percent of the explained component).

Gender wage gap, field of major

Abstract:
We show that controlling for subject of degree explains a significant part of the male/female gender wage differential amongst graduates. Using data from the labour force surveys of the United Kingdom and Germany, we find similar results in these two countries: Subject of degree explains about 2-4 percent higher wages of male over female graduates after controlling for age, industry, region, part-time and public sector employment. This is a significant part (between 8 to 20 percent) of the overall male/female gender wage gap, and an even larger amount of the part explained by factors entered into wage equations (at around 24 to 30 percent of the explained component).

gender wage gap, field of major

Abstract:
Despite being central to government education policy in many countries, there remains considerable debate about whether resources matter for pupil outcomes. In this paper we look at this question by considering an English education policy initiative - Excellence in Cities - which has been a flagship policy aimed at raising standards in inner-city secondary schools. We report results showing a positive impact of the extra resources on school attendance and performance in Mathematics (though not for English) but, interestingly, there is a marked heterogeneity in the effectiveness of the policy. Its greatest impact has been in more disadvantaged schools and on the performance of middle and high ability students within these schools. A back-of-envelope cost-benefit calculation suggests the policy to be cost-effective. We conclude that additional resources can matter for children in the poorest secondary schools, particularly when building on a solid educational or ability background. However, small changes in resources have little or no effect on the "hard to reach" children who have not achieved a sufficiently strong prior level.

education, resources, evaluation, disadvantage

Abstract:
The authors analyze establishment-level data from the three Workplace Industrial Relations Surveys of 1980, 1984 and 1990 to document and explain the sharp decline in unionization that occurred in Britain over the 1980s. Between 1980 and 1990 the proportion of British establishments which recognised manual or non-manual trade unions for collective bargaining over pay and conditions fell by almost 20 percent (from 0.67 to 0.54). The evidence reported demonstrates the importance of the interaction between the labour market, the product market, employer behaviour and the legislative framework in determining union recognition status in new establishments. The sharp fall in trade union recognition appears to be largely driven by a failure to achieve recognition status in establishments set up in the 1980s. These results, when taken in conjunction with recent changes in the nature of employment in the British labour market, seem to paint a bleak picture for unions and there appears to be no reason why the decline in union activity should not continue into the 1990s.

Abstract:
We show that the length of compulsory education has a causal impact on regional labour mobility. The analysis is based on a quasi-exogenous staged Norwegian school reform, and register data on the whole population. Based on the results, we conclude that part of the US-Europe difference, as well as the European North-South difference in labour mobility, is likely to be due to differences in levels of education in the respective regions.

labour market, mobility, education

Abstract:
This paper considers the extent to which union decline in Britain has been characterized by convergence or divergence in union membership rates for people with different personal and job characteristics. It compares individual union membership in 1975 and 2001 to identify some significant factors of convergence and divergence, which indicate temporal instability in the relationship between union membership and a number of its determinants. Identification of these factors of convergence and divergence should be useful to several parties, including industrial relations scholars and union organizers.

Abstract:
In this paper we study the causal impact of police on crime by looking at what happened to crime before and after the terror attacks that hit central London in July 2005. The attacks resulted in a large redeployment of police officers to central London boroughs as compared to outer London - in fact, police deployment in central London increased by over 30 percent in the six weeks following the July 7 bombings. During this time crime fell significantly in central relative to outer London. Study of the timing of the crime reductions and their magnitude, the types of crime which were more likely to be affected and a series of robustness tests looking at possible biases all make us confident that our research approach identifies a causal impact of police on crime. Implementing an instrumental variable approach shows an elasticity of crime with respect to police of approximately -0.3, so that a 10 percent increase in police activity reduces crime by around 3 percent.

crime, police, terror attacks

Abstract:
No abstract available.

Abstract:
Recent work on the economic effects of minimum wages has stressed that the standard economic model, where increases in minimum wages depress employment, is not supported by the empirical findings in some labour markets. In this paper we present a theoretical framework which is general enough to allow minimum wages to have the conventional negative impact on employment, but which also allows for the possibility of a neutral or a positive effect. The model structure is based on labour market frictions which give employers some degree of monopsony power. The formulated model has a number of empirical implications which we go on to test using data on industry-based minimum wages set by the UK Wages Councils between 1975 and 1990. Some strong results emerge: minimum wages significantly compress the distribution of earnings and, contrary to conventional economic wisdom but in line with several recent studies, do not have a negative impact on employment. If anything, the relationship between minimum wages and employment is estimated to be positive.

Abstract:
This paper reports results from a recent survey conducted on unionization in over 650 firms in the private sector in the UK. The survey shows that since 1997 there has been a slight fall in derecognition, but a relatively large increase in union recognition. This increase in new recognition agreements is consistent with the idea that the incoming Labour government had a positive effect on the ability of unions to gain recognition, either through the 1999 legislation or more indirectly through changing the political climate.

Abstract:
Despite its high relevance to current policy debates, estimating the causal effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) investment on educational standards remains fraught with difficulties. We exploit a change in the rules governing ICT funding across different school districts of England to devise an Instrumental Variable strategy to identify the causal impact of ICT expenditure on pupil outcomes. The approach identifies the effect of being a 'winner' or a 'loser' in the new system of ICT funding allocation to schools. Our findings suggest a positive impact on primary school performance in English and Science, though not for Mathematics.

Abstract:
The widening gap between the average educational achievement of boys and girls has been the subject of much discussion. This gap is especially controversial for students taking national exams at the end of their compulsory education. However, the gender gap is also apparent at earlier and at later stages of education. In this paper, we analyse changes over time in the gender achievement gap at the different stages of compulsory education in English schools. We first use a combination of data sources to paint a picture of how gender gaps have evolved over time and in what context they are most marked. Then we consider possible explanations for the observed gender gaps. We look at the relevance of school inputs, teaching practice, and the examination system for explaining the gender gap. We also discuss the potential influence of wider social and economic changes as reflected, for example, in the much higher education levels of mothers relative to those of previous generations. Analysis of this issue is important in the context of research on the gender wage gap. However, it is also raises policy-relevant issues in relation to whether changes in the school system can effect a change in the gender gap in educational achievement.

human, mouse, spermatogonia, testicular tissue, xenograft

Abstract:
In this paper we explore changes over time in higher education (HE) participation and attainment between people from richer and poorer family backgrounds during a time period when the UK higher education system expanded at a rapid rate. We use longitudinal data from three time periods to study temporal shifts in HE participation and attainment across parental income groups for children going to university in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The key finding is a highly policy relevant one, namely that HE expansion has not been equally distributed across people from richer and poorer backgrounds. Rather, it has disproportionately benefited children from relatively rich families. Despite the fact that many more children from higher income backgrounds participated in HE before the recent expansion of the system, the expansion acted to widen participation gaps between rich and poor children. This finding is robust to different measures of education participation and inequality. It also emerges from non-parametric estimations and from a more detailed econometric model allowing for the sequential nature of education choices with potentially different income associations at different stages of the education sequence.

Abstract:
The relationship between unions and earnings dispersion is examined using establishment-level data from the 1980, 1984 and 1990 Workplace Industrial Relations Surveys. Initially the cross-sectional relationship is examined using the 1990 data. The earnings dispersion of skilled and semi-skilled workers is seen to be lower across unionised establishments than across non-union establishments; secondly, within-establishment earnings dispersion is lower in plants which recognise trade unions for collective bargaining purposes than in those that do not. All three surveys are then utilised to ascertain to what extent the decline in unionization in Britain has contributed to the rise in earnings inequality of semi-skilled workers. There was a sizable and important widening of the gap in the dispersion of earnings across union and non-union plants between 1980 and 1990. For semi-skilled earnings, the decline in the share of plants with recognised unions can account for 11-17% of the rise in earnings inequality over this time period. The importance of falling union activity (as measured by union recognition) seemed to accelerate through the 1980s. Between 1980 and 1984 the relatively small falls in aggregate recognition explain less than 10% of the inequality increase, whereas between 1984 and 1990 about one-quarter of the increase can be accounted for by the fall in unionisation. The majority of the rise in earnings inequality is, however, due to a large increase in earnings dispersion across non-union establishments.

Abstract:
This paper studies the economic effects of minimum wages in a sector that is very vulnerable to minimum wage legislation, the UK care homes sector. We study the effects of the introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) in April 1999 on wages and employment before and after minimum wage introduction and before and after the subsequent increase of the minimum wage in October 2001. We also study home closures between 1999 and 2001. The results show sizeable wage effects and some evidence of employment reductions but we are unable to detect any effect on home closure.

Abstract:
This paper investigates whether young people whose fathers are union members are themselves more likely to join a union. We find that young people with unionized fathers are twice as likely to be unionized as those with non-union fathers; this rises to three times higher for those whose fathers are active in the union. This supports the idea that socialization within the family plays a role in encouraging union membership. It is not the case that the cross-generation correlations we observe are driven by common within-family characteristics (like occupation, industry and political persuasion) that are strongly related to union membership.

Abstract:
This paper provides an empirical evaluation of whether one can uncover a link between crime and the labour market using a research methodology that is different to that utilized in existing work. We exploit a large regulatory change that was made to the UK labour market when a national minimum wage was introduced in April 1999. This minimum wage introduction provided pay increases for quite a large number of low paid workers. From a theoretical perspective we argue that this wage boost could have altered individual incentives to participate in crime. We then go on to develop empirical tests of this hypothesis comparing spatial crime patterns, measured at police force area level, in the years before and after the introduction of the minimum wage floor. Our empirical study of area-level crime rates before and after the minimum wage introduction uncovers a statistically significant link between changes in crime and the extent of area low pay before the minimum wage was introduced. Overall our results are in line with the notion that altering wage incentives can affect crime and therefore that there exists a link between crime and the low wage labour market.

Abstract:
School quality is capitalised in house prices if access to schools is rationed by residential location. We generate empirical predictions from three different theoretical approaches linking house prices to school performance, distance to school and capacity. These are respectively based upon admission constraints, school popularity and congestion effects. We find that test-score-based school performance significantly increases property prices, but only the best one in ten schools generate higher than average prices close by, and that prices are higher close to popular, over-capacity schools. We conclude that the empirical evidence is more in line with the school popularity model.

Abstract:
Among policymakers, educators and economists there remains a strong, sometimes heated, debate on the extent to which good schools matter. This is seen, for instance, in the strong trend towards establishing accountability systems in education in many countries across the world. In this paper, in line with some recent studies, we value school quality using house prices. We, however, adopt a rather different approach to other work, using a policy experiment regarding pupils' choice to attend high schools to identify the relationship between house prices and school performance. We exploit a change in school choice policy that took place in Oslo county in 1997, where the school authorities opened up the possibility for every pupil to apply to any of the high schools in the county without having to live in the school's catchment area (the rule that applied before 1997). Our estimates show evidence that parents substantially value better performing schools since the sensitivity of housing valuations to school performance falls significantly by over 50% following the school choice reform.

house prices, school performance, school reform

Abstract:
Housing prices within urban areas exhibit highly localized variation that cannot be explained solely by differences in the physical attributes of dwellings. We consider the role of local amenities and disamenities in generating price variation within urban areas, focusing on three highly policy-relevant urban issues-transport accessibility, school quality, and crime. Our survey of the recent empirical literature highlights what is known and what is not known on these issues, and considers the relevance and reliability of this evidence for policy design and evaluation. Although there are serious empirical challenges, we argue that research on housing values based on careful research designs can offer credible estimates of the social value of place-specific attributes and amenities.

house prices, transport, school quality, crime

Abstract:
In this paper (based on my invited lecture to the 2007 Association of Italian Labour Economists) I offer an appraisal of the large economic literature on changes in wage inequality. I describe the origins of the recent work, the sizable body of research trying to understand national and international differences, and discuss the directions in which more recent work has moved. The paper concludes with the observation that, for a number of reasons, research that tries to better understand changing patterns of wage inequality (especially in a cross-country context) is likely to remain high on the research agenda of empirical labour economists.

Abstract:
The authors use British workplace data for 1980-98 to examine whether increased human resource management (HRM) practices coincided with union decline, consistent with the hypothesis that such practices act as a substitute for unionization. Two initial analyses show no important differences between union and non-union sectors or between newer workplaces (which are likelier to be non-union) and older ones in the pattern of HRM practices over time; and the study's longitudinal analysis picks up no evidence of faster union decline in workplaces or industries that adopted HRM practices than in those that did not. Not only is the hypothesized substitution effect thus not supported, but the authors even uncover some evidence of a complementarity between unions and HRM practices. The authors conclude that increased use of HRM practices is probably not an important factor underpinning union decline in Britain.

Human Resource Management, British trade unions

Abstract:
This paper examines the structure of wages in a very specific labor market: care assistants in residential homes for the elderly on England's sunshine coast. This sector corresponds closely to economists' notion of what should be a competitive labor market, both because it has a large number of small firms undertaking a very homogeneous activity in a concentrated geographical area, and because the workers are neither unionized nor covered by any minimum wage legislation, so that there are effectively no external constraints on the wage-setting process. The authors find that the wage structure deviates in important respects from what would be expected in a competitive labor market. In particular, wage dispersion is small within firms, but large between firms; and the wage dispersion that is present does not seem to be closely related to workers' productivity-related characteristics. A test rejects the hypothesis that unobserved labor quality can explain these findings.

competitive labor market theory

Abstract:
In this paper we consider the extent to which skill-biased technological changes are transferring across international borders, thereby altering the skill structure of labour markets. Evidence of increased relative demand for skilled workers is uncovered in the manufacturing sectors of 37 high-, middle-, and low-income countries. Skill-biased technology transfer is central to the increased demand for skilled workers in middle-income countries. In low-income countries there is less evidence of such a mechanism operating.

Abstract:
In this paper we consider the relationship between the firm's choice of capital structure and the unionisation status of the labour force. Empirical estimates of Tobit models explaining the firm level debt-equity ratio betwee 1986 and 1990 lend support to the view that unionisation is associated with lower leverage. This finding is robust the analysis of empirical models based on total debt or short term debt alone. Estimations of changes in this relationship over time point to an increasingly negative impact as the decade progressed.

Abstract:
The authors use British establishment-level data from the 1991 Employers' Manpower and Skills Practices Survey (EMSPS) and individual-level data from the Autumn 1993 Quarterly Labor Force Survey (QLFS) to investigate the links between training provision and workplace unionization. Both the probability of receiving training and the amount of training received are found to have been substantially higher in unionized than in non-union workplaces. The authors view these results as showing that trade unions can play an important role in developing and boosting skill formation in Britain.

Abstract:
Increased product market competition should affect outcomes in labour and product markets, and one of the key premises of standard economic theory is that, all other things held constant, prices should be lower and efficiency enhanced by more competition. In this paper we directly test this notion by considering the relationship between product market competition and establishment-level wages and economic performance. We use two microeconomic data sources from Britain and Australia to consider this relationship. Our results find only a limited role for market competition to impact on wages and productivity. In British workplaces, labour productivity is not raised by more competition, whilst in Australia we can only find evidence of the conventionally expected positive impact in manufacturing workplaces. With respect to wages, the results are more consistent with the competition hypothesis, though effects are not that strong, with significant effects only being found for some of the skill groups within our samples of establishments. Hence, there is only very limited support for the key hypothesis of interest that we consider.

Abstract:
This paper examines the evidence that rapid upgrading of the skill structure in recent years was driven by technological change. Four countries are examined who have had different wage inequality and unemployment trends--Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. The analysis of changes in wage bill shares and employment shares of more skilled workers leads us to the following conclusions: 1) within-industry changes are the driving force of aggregate shifts across all four countries; 2) there is evidence of skill-biased technical change and capital-skill complementarity in all four countries; 3) the results are robust to using education instead of occupation as a measure of skill and computerization instead of R & D as a measure of technology; 4) in the Anglo-Saxon countries a maximum of one-third of the aggregate change in the skill structure can be accounted for purely by technological factors; 5) the decline of collective bargaining, rather than trade, in the United Kingdom and the United States is an important factor in explaining the changes.

Abstract:
This paper argues that current-period corporate growth rates reflect changes in current expectations about the long-run profitability of a firm. Using data on a balanced panel of 271 large, quoted U.K. firms over the period 1976-82, we report the existence of a positive, statistically significant and robust correlation between current-period growth rates and a natural measure of changes in current expectations about long-run profitability, namely changes in the stock market valuation of the firm.