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...

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...