This paper assesses the impact that trade unions have on the wage rates paid to workers in Great Britain using data from the Labour Force Survey. By employing a quantile regression model, this analysis is conducted over the entire range of the earnings distribution, where it is found that unions...

In this paper we show that whilst there appear to be substantial private earnings gains to be had from a university education, these are greater for women than they are for men. Due to substantial asymmetries in post-graduation earnings performance, choice of subject is more important for men.

The U.K. government has recently committed itself to an ambitious 80 per cent employment rate target. Recognising that achieving this aspiration will require significant numbers of the economically inactive to (re-)engage with the labour market, the government has enacted various policy reforms...

Regional unemployment rates in Great Britain have narrowed dramatically in recent years. However, significant differences still remain in terms of both employment and economic inactivity rates, which may now better reflect relative labour market performance. This paper examines these differences...

This paper uses unique data for the economically inactive to calculate elasticity estimates of the reservation wage and exit probability with respect to state benefits and the arrival rate of job offers, and finds that the inactive react in similar ways to benefit increases as the unemployed.

This paper shows that the potential earnings of the unemployed are lower compared to the employed. The authors interpret this as being supportive of a dual labor market with a privileged primary sector who are less likely to be unemployed compared to the secondary sector who are more likely to...