In Britain there is no longer statutory support for the closed shop and in the United States many states have right-to-work laws. Wages and membership determination are examined in this setting. The main findings are: (1) already established unions will not necessarily wither away with the mere...

This paper examines British apprenticeships, their incidence, and their impact on labor mobility using the National Child Development Study Sweep 4. The apprenticeship was the principal form of training received by male school leavers at age sixteen in the 1970s. The paper estimates the...

We estimate dynamic panel data models of unemployment incidence for men using the British Household Panel Survey. Econometric issues concerning unobserved individual heterogeneity, genuine state dependence, and the initial conditions problems are addressed in detail. We find strong evidence of...

A recent finding in the training literature is that there will be underinvestment in skills if there is a positive quit rate, training is at least partially transferable, and there is imperfect competition in the labor market. The authors explore the conditions under which this underinvestment...

Models are needed that can explain both the recent structural chang e in the U.K. economy and the possibility that this might have long-r un effects on unemployment. The major results are that arise in material prices is likely to increase long-run unemployment for countries that are net...

Education may enhance earnings either because of human capital increases or by signalling unobservable worker attributes. Previous tests of these alternatives relied on ad hoc distinctions between them. Our theoretical model provides a direct signal measure as the difference between required and...

The annual cost of absenteeism from the workplace in the UK has been estimated to be over 1% of GDP. The traditional approach to a discussion of absence has been for the firm to passively accept both wages and sick pay and allow workers to choose their absence behaviour. Most empirical research...