The wage curve literature consistently finds a negative relationship between regional unemployment rates and regional wages; the most widely accepted theoretical explanations interpret the unemployment rate as a measure of job competition. This paper proposes new ways of measuring job...

This paper investigates the demise of unionisation in British private sector workplaces over the last quarter century. We show that dramatic union decline has occurred across all types of workplace. Although the union wage premium persists it is quite small in 2004. Negative union effects on...

The job search literature suggests that an increase in the proportion of job seekers who are employed reduces the probability of unemployed people finding a job. However, there is little evidence indicating that employed and unemployed job seekers have similar observed characteristics or that...

We use the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to analyse whether employed and unemployed job seekers are substitutes by comparing their individual characteristics and past (un)employment and job histories. Since the BHPS does not directly collect information on job search activities of...

We use data from the Labour Force Survey to show that employed and unemployed job seekers in Great Britain originate from different occupations and find jobs in different occupations. We find substantial differences in occupational mobility between job seekers: employed job seekers are most...

This paper examines if workplace and co-worker union status affect employee wellbeing. In contrast to the literature focusing on links between one's own membership status and wellbeing, we focus principally on non-union employees. We find that being in a union workplace and having union...