Using the British Household Panel Survey, we estimate the impact of the national minimum wage, introduced in April 1999, on the work-related training of low-wage workers. We use two 'treatment groups'- those workers who explicitly stated they were affected by the new minimum and those workers...

In this paper we highlight the relevance of work-related training to the minimum wage debate. We initially situate training incidence within the broader picture of the earnings distribution in Britain and demonstrate that lower-paid workers are less likely than workers towards the top of the...

Recent studies have used quantile regression (QR) techniques to estimate the impact of education on the location, scale and shape of the conditional wage distribution. In our paper we investigate the degree to which work-related training – another important form of human capital – affects...

Cross-national differences in outcomes are often analysed using regression analysis of multilevel country datasets, examples of which include the ECHP, ESS, EU-SILC, EVS, ISSP, and SHARE. We review the regression methods applicable to this data structure, pointing out problems with the...

We examine how couples’ labour supply behaviour in the UK responds to a job loss by one partner, using the Labour Force Survey to compare the period of growth of 1995-2007 to the Great Recession and its aftermath of 2008-11. In single earner couples during the recession, both men and...

Using harmonized data for the years 1995–2001 from the European Community Household Panel, the authors analyze gender pay gaps by sector across the wage distribution in eleven countries. In estimations that control for the effects of individual characteristics at different points of the...

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) we show performance pay (PP) increased earnings dispersion among men and women, and to a lesser extent among full-time working women, in the decade of economic growth which ended with the recession of 2008. PP was also associated with...

Economists have long suggested that labor unions suffer a free rider problem. The argument is that, since union-set wages are available to all workers covered by unions irrespective of their union status, and union membership entails costs, workers will only join if they are coerced or are...

This paper provides an integrated interpretation of qualitative and quantitative data examining how couples respond when one partner loses their job. According to economic theory there may be an ‘Added Worker Effect’ where, when one partner loses their job, their spouse enters the...

We provide a critical discussion of the concept drug-related crime and review methods for estimating its volume, emphasising the importance of an appropriately defined counterfactual. We then construct new estimates for England and Wales in 2003-6, combining data from the Arrestee Survey and...