New data on individual worker’s outputs show that New England ring spinners exhibited substantial on the job learning c. 1905. Despite this, variable capital-labour ratios meant high labour turnover reduced aggregate labour productivity only fractionally. The combination of variable...

One of the most significant changes in the labour market in the twentieth century was the rise of the internal labour market. Its origins can be found in the nineteenth century, particularly in the large service companies such as banks and the railway companies. By studying the internal labour...

The period of 1840 (when the Opium War broken out) till now is commonly regarded as China’s modern era, ‘modern’ in terms of China’s departure from its original growth and developmental path. In this context, the term modern has been intimately associated with something alien to the...

Over the last decade, many countries have experienced dramatic increases in university enrolment, which, when not matched by compensating increases in other inputs, have resulted in larger class sizes. Using administrative records from a leading UK university, we present evidence on the effects...

The analysis in the Report of the Pensions Commission (UK Pensions Commission2004, henceforth referred to as the Report), is sound, the data a wonderful treasure trove, thepresentation particularly clear, and the diagnosis correct. This comment takes the Report’sanalysis as given, and sets out...

Building on earlier work (Barr 2004a), this paper discusses the role of tuition fees in paying for teaching at universities in England, though much of the analysis applies also to the rest of the UK and to OECD countries. There is no discussion of financing research. The paper addresses three...