This paper examines the impact of trade unions in the US and the UK and elsewhere. In both the US and the UK, despite declining membership numbers, unions are able to raise wages substantially over the equivalent non-union wage. Unions in other countries, such as Australia, Austria, Brazil,...

It is widely recognised that one of the greatest economic problems facing developed countries is unemployment. An example of this recognition is the recent reports by the OECD ("The OECD Jobs Study", 1994) on unemployment, its causes and possible policies. One issue that is closely associated...

This paper compares changes in the structure if wages in France, Great Britain, Japan and the United States over the last twenty years. Wage differentials by education and occupation (skill differentials) narrowed substantially in all four countries in the 1970s. Overall wage inequality and...

That greater product market competition has the potential to affect outcomes in labour and product markets is borne out one by one of the key premises of standard economic theory which predicts that, all other things held constant, prices should be lower and efficiency enhanced by more...

This paper considers the issue of unemployment one of the most pressing issues facingthe UK and other governments, as the current recessions deepens. It begins by trying toaccurately date the beginning of the current downturn in the British economy, arguingthat it is clear that the recession...

Using nationally-representative linked employer-employee data for Britain this paper considers whether employers are able to influence the organizational commitment (OC) of their employees through the practices they deploy. We examine the association between OC and two broad groups of HRM...

This paper estimates the size of the union membership wage premium by comparing wage outcomes for unionised workers with ''matched'' non-unionised workers. The method assumes selection on observables. For this identifying assumption to be plausible, one must be able to control for all...

This book takes a fresh look at the issue of job quality, analysing employer behaviour and discussing the agenda for policy intervention. The contributions in the volume provide new perspectives on a highly debated and policy relevant issue. Between 1997 and 2002, more than twelve million new...

In this paper we seek to explain the emergence of different voice regimes, and to do so by using approaches from institutional economics. In particular we analyse the emergence of different voice regimes as a contracting problem; a ¿make¿ or ¿buy¿ decision on the part of the employer. A...

We use linked employer-employee data to investigate the job satisfaction effect of unionisation in Britain. We depart from previous studies by developing a model that simultaneously controls for the endogeneity of union membership and union recognition. We show that a negative association...