In this paper we apply earnings equations for UK regions over 1982-1997. We find strong evidence of rapid convergence across regions regarding the determinants of individual wages (ie regional fixed-effects, gender gaps and returns to education and experience). Data on average regional earnings,...

This paper compares the supply of specialist ICT skills in Britain and Germany from higher education and from apprenticeship and assesses the relative impact on companies in the two countries. In contrast to Britain, where numbers of ICT graduates have expanded rapidly, the supply of university...

This paper provides an overview of the Japanese third sector with a particular focus on organisational issues. It begins with background information on the third sector in Japan and offers reasons why the sector has remained relatively underdeveloped. It then discusses recent changes in Japan...

This paper represents a first attempt to examine empirically the comparative extensiveness of low pay in the third sector against the theoretical backdrop of both the generic labour market literature and the newly emerging specialist third sector literature. It shows that the third sector...

This paper addresses the questions of the effects of diversification strategies on firms' profitability. Empirical analyses do not seem to confirm the hypothesis that diversification is the optimal response to the presence of synergies and hence generates higher profits. It is shown that this...

This paper considers the impact of public sector employment on local labour markets. Using English data at the Local Authority level for 2003–2007 we find that public sector employment has no identifiable effect on total private sector employment. However, public sector employment does affect...

The labour demand decisions of multinational corporations (MNCs) are likely to depend not only on domestic, but also on foreign labour costs. This paper tests this hypothesis by estimating labour demand equations for a sample of Swedish MNCs. Indeed, higher foreign costs increase an MNC''s...

The tobacco industry’s archives suggest that the global campaign for the plain packaging of tobacco products originated in 1986, when the Canadian Medical Association passed a resolution calling for cigarettes to be sold in packages bearing only a brand name and the health message ‘this...