Unemployment, earnings and absence: British and European labour market experience.

Sessions, John G (1998) Unemployment, earnings and absence: British and European labour market experience. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

This thesis comprises five chapters that together offer some contribution to the economics of unemployment, earnings and absence. Chapter One: Unemployment Stigma investigates the implications of an occupational hierarchy on labour market behaviour. The ideas developed are applied, firstly, to a model of the wage curve where it is shown that the relationship between unemployment and pay may be upward slopping over some range; and secondly, to a non-shirking model of efficiency wages where the potential for multiple labour market equilibria is highlighted. Chapter Two: The Economics of Absence investigates the relatively neglected issue of worker absence. The Chapter reviews and offers some perspective to existing studies of absence, develops a theoretical model of absence that incorporates both the supply and demand aspects of the employment relation, and sets out an empirical analysis of the relationship between absence and labour supply. Chapter Three: Absence and Profit Sharing explores the relationship between employee sharing and worker absence using data from a panel of 127 French firms over the period 1981-1991. The results suggest that both profit sharing and employee share ownership schemes are associated with significantly lower absence, the extent of the decline depending crucially upon whether or not the schemes operate exclusively of one another. An interesting question also emerges concerning the relationship between contractual flexibility and absence behaviour, the empirical analysis suggesting that a more widespread use of part-time contracts may act to reduce the incidence of absence in firms operating profit sharing schemes. Chapter Four: U.K. Unemployment profiles the incidence of unemployment in the U.K. over the period 1985-91 by quantifying the differential probabilities of unemployment faced by particular groups within the population. The results indicate that, even after controlling for a plethora of demographic characteristics, regional disparities in unemployment risk are prevalent. Chapter Five: Trade and Trade Unions examines the effects of international trade on the employment and earnings prospects of a sample of U.K. workers. The Chapter develops a model of international oligopoly with generally unionised labour markets which suggests that an increased exposure to trade is more likely to impact negatively upon the wage (employment) prospects of workers the greater (lesser) the degree of union bargaining power to which they are subservient. The empirical analysis in the Chapter offers substantive support for this proposition.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Economics, Labor
Sets:	Collections > ProQuest Etheses Departments > Economics
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/2274

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