This lecture provides a general framework for analysing unemployment. For inflation to be stable, there must be sufficient unemployment to prevent 'target real wages' exceeding 'feasible real wages'. Target real wages depend on bargaining systems, benefit systems, labour market policies and...

Our conclusions are the most important influences on unemployment come from the following (i) The longer unemployment benefits are available the longer unemployment lasts. Similarly, higher levels of benefits generate higher unemployment, with an elasticity of around one half. On the other hand...

The paper develops a model in which employment is an enduring rent-sharing relationship. In each period rents are subject to a transient disturbance, and the parties weigh the future stream of benefits against current dis-benefits. The analysis suggests a strong correlation between real interest...

In this paper I consider the rapid decline in the unionization rate that has occurred in Britain since the late 1970s. An establishment based analysis reports that the overwhelming factor in explaining falling unionization was a failure to organise the new sorts of establishments that were set...

This paper contrasts the approach to the measurement of stocks of education that is adopted by growth economists on the one hand and governments wishing to improve economic performance through education on the other. It it pointed out progress to date in demonstrating the link between human...

Although a great deal of management consultancy has been carried out in a wide variety of settings, very little research has been conducted examining underlying dimensions of the client-consultant relationship. The present study examines consultant and client perceptions of the consulting...

This paper considers one of the paradoxes of incentive pay used in Britain's public services, namely that despite much evidence that it does not motivate employees, it continues to be widely used. It is argued that behind this evidence, there are significant examples in which its use has been...

The analysis is concerned with the contributions of numeracy and literacy to earnings, for three reasons: first, no clear pattern emerges from existing findings relating to the contributions of different types of ability, and numeracy and literacy appear to be a natural basic starting point;...

When information about workers' abilities is imperfect, past employment histories are important determinants of unemployment duration. This paper studies the effects of employment protection laws on unemployment spells in two countries: Italy and Spain. Italy and Spain's adoption of fixed-term...

There is a popular stereotype that at greenfield sites managers practice, and sustain over time new forms of human resource management and that in doing so they obtain highly positive performance outcomes. A persisting theme in this stereotype is that greenfield sites are characterised by a...