David Blackaby

Swansea University | SWAN · School of Business and Economics

This study uses data from the European Social Survey to analyse the impact of same-sex relationship recognition policies on the political trust of sexual minorities. We exploit temporal and geographic variation in the passage of same-sex relationship recognition policies to test the effect of these policies on the political trust of sexual minoriti...

Wellbeing trajectories around key life events are calculated using HILDA data for Australia. Employing a panel quantile approach, a pan-distributional analysis of these major events identifies distinctive adjustment patterns across the subjective wellbeing distribution and differing orders of magnitudes. For all life aspects analysed, immediate imp...

There is a well-established literature that examines how religion interacts with subjective measures of wellbeing, with the overwhelming view being that this relationship is positive. However, with the rising creep of secularity observed over recent decades in the UK, the question arises as to how relevant religion is for wellbeing within contempor...

The relationship between sexual identity and wellbeing is analysed in an unconditional panel quantile setting. There is heterogeneity across sexual identity and gender for homosexuals and, for all but lesbians, sexual minorities are less satisfied than heterosexuals below the median of the wellbeing distribution. Meanwhile, bisexuals of any gender...

This article investigates what has been happening to the public‐sector wage differential in Great Britain over the period 1994–2017. The evidence indicates that apart from men in the lower part of the pay distribution, the public‐sector pay premium has declined for all public‐sector workers. This decline has coincided with a decline in the overall...

This paper reviews some important literature on the likely implications of Brexit on the UK economy, including that from some of the large forecasting organisations in the UK. Most of these forecasts suggest that the economy will be smaller than it would have been had the UK remained in the EU going forward, though the extent will depend on the tra...

Regional pay? The public/private sector pay differential. Regional Studies. This paper extends the debate on making public sector wages more responsive to those in the private sector. The way in which the public/private sector wage differential is calculated dramatically alters conclusions, and far from there being substantial regional disparity in...

In light of substantial disadvantage faced by ethnic minorities, the UK government stated a decade ago that in 10 years’ time, ethnic minorities should no longer face disproportionate barriers to labour market achievement. From the investigation of the stock of native born ethnics conducted here, it is evident that such aspirations have not been re...

Using data from the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities, English language fluency is shown to have an important influence over the level of earnings that ethnic minorities are able to command within the employee labour market. There is also evidence to suggest that language fluency has some role to play in describing the difference in avera...

Despite continued efforts through improved levels of investment in infrastructure and education, Wales continues to trail behind the rest of the UK in terms of productivity performance. In this paper we review recent trends and present firm-level findings that suggest that the Priority Sectors first identified by the Welsh Government's latest econo...

In this paper we use the most recently available data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, April 2011, to examine the size of the gender pay gap in Wales. The paper looks at how the gender pay gap varies across industries and occupations in Wales and analyses how the gender pay gap has changed over time and in relation to the UK and other...

Childhood Obesity in Wales.

Using matched employer-employee data from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey (2004), we find a significant training 'advantage' exists for public sector workers over private sector workers even after accounting for differences in the composition of the two workforces. This finding is robust to all but one change in specification, designed to...

The paper analyses employment differences between Northern Ireland's Catholics and Protestants and examines whether the Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998 was followed by an improvement in the relative position of Catholics.

Using data on the patent portfolios of UK universities, the paper compares the levels of patenting activity (filings), success (grants) and quality (patents with commercial co-assignees and patent citations) at Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish institutions. Patent activity, per researcher, in Wales is on a par with that in Scotland and about twic...

Data for the economically inactive are used to calculate elasticity estimates of the reservation wage and exit probability to state benefits and the arrival rate of job offers. The inactive react in similar ways to benefit increases as the unemployed.

Using pooled cross-sectional data from 1984–1989 and 1990–1995, two-stage (Tobit/OLS) regressions show that the penalty on male earnings for working wives, found in earlier research for British males in the early 1980's in managerial and other occupations, is not present in the second half of the 1980's and is largely reversed by the 1990's; in mos...

These Explorations, by eight authors from Canada, China, the US, and the UK, examine the current status of women in economics (with an eye mainly toward their status in the academic branch of the profession). The four sections of the work analyze results of surveys that show the distribution of academic positions among women economists in universit...

The U.K. government has recently committed itself to an ambitious 80 per cent employment rate target. Recognising that achieving this aspiration will require significant numbers of the economically inactive to (re-)engage with the labour market, the government has enacted various policy reforms seeking to encourage those on the fringes of the labou...

Devolution, sustainability and GDP convergence: is the Welsh agenda achievable?, Regional Studies, 679-689. The Welsh Assembly Government has a constitutional duty to promote sustainable development. The devolution settlement does not, however, empower the Assembly to deviate from UK tax rates, while the Assembly Government has itself adopted ambit...

These Explorations, by eight authors from Canada, China, the US, and the UK, examine the current status of women in economics (with an eye mainly toward their status in the academic branch of the profession). The four sections of the work analyze results of surveys that show the distribution of academic positions among women economists in universit...

Chile has been at the forefront of pension reform, having switched in 1980 from a pay-as-you-go system to a fully funded privatized accounts system. The Chilean system served as a model for reform in many other Latin American countries and has also been considered by U.S. policy makers as a possible prototype for social security reform. Some of the...

In spite of the 40 years that have passed since legislation was first introduced to combat racial discrimination, British-born ethnic minorities fare little better than their immigrant parents in the UK labour market.

Using a unique data source on academic economist labour market experiences, we explore gender, pay and promotions. In addition to earnings and productivity measures, we have information on outside offers and perceptions of discrimination. We find both a gender promotions gap and a within-rank gender pay gap. A driving factor may be outside offers:...

Regional unemployment rates in Great Britain have narrowed dramatically in recent years. However, significant differences still remain in terms of both employment and economic inactivity rates, which may now better reflect relative labour market performance. This paper examines these differences in labour market outcomes using a unified empirical f...

The migration of labour can affect economies in several ways. This paper focuses on two of the economic impacts of migration in the context of the recent Welsh experience. Firstly, since migration is a key aspect of labour market flexibility, it is a mechanism through which local and regional labour market differences can be reduced. However, it is...

This paper assesses the impact that trade unions have on the wage rates paid to workers in Great Britain using data from the Labour Force Survey. By employing a quantile regression model, this analysis is conducted over the entire range of the earnings distribution, where it is found that unions have more scope for increasing the earnings of worker...

Using a unique data source on academic economists' labour market experiences, we explore gender, pay and promotions. In addition to earnings and productivity measures, we have information on outside offers and perceptions of discrimination. In contrast to the existing literature, we find both a gender promotions gap and a within-rank gender pay gap...

This paper provides benchmark estimates of the impact that trade unions have on the wage rates paid to workers in Great Britain using data from the Labour Force Survey. This is done for a number of gender and occupational subgroups of the population using information on both union membership and union coverage.

It is 20 years since Britain passed legislation to combat racial discrimination. Despite this, evidence presented in this paper suggests that Britain's<?Pub Caret> non&hyphen;white ethnic minorities still do not appear to face a level playing field in the UK labour market and their relative position does not appear to have improved since the 1970s....

Incl. abstract, tables, bibl. The government is committed to widening access to higher education, yet applicants from ethnic minorities have 5.8 per cent less chance of gaining an acceptance than white. For some groups, for example Black-Caribbeans, the difference is even larger. Is this the result of institutional racism or because ethnic minoriti...

This paper assesses the impact that trade unions have on the wage rates paid to full-time employees in Great Britain using data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey. Unlike previous research, this analysis is conducted over the entire range ofthe earnings distribution, where it is found that unions have more scope for increasing the earnings of w...

Using a survey questionnaire of academic economists in the United Kingdom, we examine the representation of ethnic and other minorities. We find that nearly 12% of UK-employed academic economists are of ethnic minority origin. However, only 1% of the sample are UK-born ethnic minority. Controlling for individual and workplace characteristics, there...

The paper uses the first five waves of the British Household Panel Survey to explore the dynamics of the labour market experience of Britain's ethnic minorities relative to the white majority. The issue to be explored is labour market transitions. Ethnic minorities are shown to exhibit greater volatility. Only panel data can reveal this important l...

A method of measuring the insecurity costs of unemployment or what might be termed the fear of unemployment effect is proposed. The approach is from an individual perspective and builds on a cost measure first suggested by Lucas. The measure is designed to abstract away from any output losses that might be incurred in a recession. The latter is the...

In common with recent North American evidence, the highest wage premiums for UK public-sector workers are found in the lower tail of the wage distribution. Evidence of public sector underpayment at the opposite extreme of the earnings spectrum is also apparent.

In this paper we show that whilst there appear to be substantial private earnings gains to be had from a university education, these are greater for women than they are for men. Due to substantial asymmetries in post-graduation earnings performance, choice of subject is more important for men.

Using a sample of over 100,000 males from the Labour Force Survey, we explore the employment prospects of different ethnic groups. There are significant differences across groups so that discrimination studies which consider ethnic minorities as one homogeneous group involve a large degree of approximation. We pay particular attention to the consid...

Despite being few in number, the treatment of the ethnic minorities in Britain has always evoked powerful and emotive reactions within society and may help to explain why legislation addressing racial discrimination was the first to appear on British statutes. It is the case, though, that the non-white population still fare considerably worse than...

Introduction This study used data from the General Household Survey (GHS) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS), pooled over a number of years, to explore the effect of disability on earnings and employment opportunities. While it is too early to assess how the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 will affect the labour market...

English language fluency is shown to have an important influence over the labour market success of ethnic minority workers in Britain. Even after controlling for this factor, though, substantial labour market disadvantage is still apparent. Keywords: discrimination, earnings, language JEL classification: J71 Acknowledgement The Fourth Survey of Eth...

It is twenty years since Britain passed legislation to combat racial discrimination. Despite this, Britain's nonwhite ethnic minorities still appear to face substantial amounts of discrimination in the labour market. Unemployment is particularly severe.

This paper investigates the relationship between a wife's work-hours decision and her husband's hourly earnings. It is found that, among men in Managerial and Other Manual occupations, having a working wife significantly reduces the husband's hourly wage rate. The findings are robust to various estimation techniques and imply for these cases that p...

This paper analyses the major developments in the structure of male and female pay in Britain between 1973 and 1991. These are the narrowing of the gender pay gap and the increasing inequality of male and female earnings. The first innovation is decomposing the changing gender pay gap into three components: prices, characteristics, and unmeasured (...

Blackaby, D et al. A picture of male and female unemployment among Britain’s ethnic minorities. 1997, vol. 44, no. 2, 182-197. Published by and copyright Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. The definitive version of this article is available from http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/ Using a sample of around one million observations, formed by combining two mi...

This paper analyzes the major developments in the structure of male and female pay in Britain between 1973 and 1991. These are the narrowing of the gender pay gap and the increasing inequality of male and female earnings. The first innovation is decomposing the changing gender pay gap into three components: prices, characteristics, and unmeasured (...

Using cross-section data for 1983, the paper attempts to shed light on the extent of Britain's North-South divide. Hedonic wage equations corrected for selectivity bias have been estimated for both manual and nonmanual employees to assess whether they compete in spatially distinct labor markets. Differences in the mean and variance of earnings betw...

This paper shows that the potential earnings of the unemployed are lower compared to the employed. The authors interpret this as being supportive of a dual labor market with a privileged primary sector who are less likely to be unemployed compared to the secondary sector who are more likely to be unemployed. Small differences in reward to the unemp...

Using a sample of around 80,000 whites and 2500 blacks, the paper highlights not just the economic disadvantage of blacks but also that this disadvantage worsened in the 1980s in Britain.

This paper analyzes the effect of the long-term unemployed on the Blanchflower and Oswald (1990) "wage curve." It is found using the 1982 General Household Survey that, contrary to Blanchflower and Oswald, the long-term unemployed do effectively drop out of the labor market. The "wage curve" effect remains but only in terms of the short-term unempl...

This paper presents an econometric analysis of the interaction between regional unemployment and regional earnings in Britain. A two-equation error-correction model of regional earnings and unemployment determination is estimated on data for 1972 to 1988 inclusive. The wage equation relates regional earnings to unemployment, long-term unemployment,...

Using individual microdata from six British local labor markets in 1986 containing information on both union membership and recognition the paper examines the influence of trade unions on both moments of the earnings distribution. The problem of sample selection and its impact on the estimated union wage differential is investigated. Finally the ef...

This paper presents evidence on the relationship between duration and wage determination in the United Kingdom based upon a data set obtained by combining the Family Expenditure Survey for 1980-86, supplemented with regional unemployment rates and cost of living indices. The results support the contention of R. Layard and S. J. Nickell (1986, 1987)...

This paper estimates the union mark-up using British General Household Survey data. The wage gap is decomposed both for the mean and the variance of the earnings distribution. The results indicate that the union mark up is larger than previously estimated and that structural effects account for a major part of the differences that are found in the...

This paper utilizes two large micro data sets--the General Household Survey and the New Earnings Survey--to identify those factors that influence the interregional wage structure. Industry-regional wage mark-ups are generated from a traditional human capital model and are then used to examine the effect that industry-regional averages, like bargain...

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the impact of regional labour market conditions and cost of living differentials on regional earnings in Britain. Unemployment duration is found to be of crucial importance when data from the General Household Surveys of 1975 and 1982 and the New earnings Surveys from 1970-86 are analysed. In particular, those with...

This paper investigates the relationship between regional earnings and unemployment by use of information primarily from the General Household Surveys of 1975 and 1982. Conventional earnings functions are augmented to capture the effects of the level and duration of unemployment and of regional differences in living costs. In common with previous s...

BLACKABY D. H. and MANNING D. N. (1990) Earnings, unemployment and the regional employment structure in Britain, Reg. Studies 24, 529–535. This paper investigates the effect of regional unemployment on regional earnings in Britain. Data are obtained from the New Earnings Survey reports from 1970 to 1986 and the influence of the regional industrial...

Time-series and cross-section data are used to analyze the determinants of di fferences in regional earnings. The authors find that individual attr ibutes and the regional industry mix are significant factors in the e xplanation of regional earnings differentials. The unexplained residu al differential is reduced when money earnings are deflated by...

This paper uses matched employee-employer data from WERS2004 to examine differences in training incidence between employees in the public and private sectors. Decomposition analysis reveals that two thirds of the 18 percentage point differential in favour of public sector workers can be explained by differences in the characteristics of workers and...

The paper takes a detailed look at earnings and employment differences between Northern Ireland's Catholics and Protestants. A before and after look is taken, where the 1998 Good Friday Agreement is taken as the dividing line. This period has been one of a generally buoyant labour market, so both Protestants and Catholics have gained. There is evid...

After 35 years of conflict, the IRA has recently announced that its war with Great Britain is over. Feelings of perceived labor market discrimination against Catholics were a major factor in feeding distrust and the conflict between Catholic and Protestant communities, and it is important that this perception is eliminated if communities are to be...

Britain's senior citizens, in common with the rest of Europe, are the fastest growing age group among the population and the numbers working have grown substantially. In 2007 the numbers working at or beyond the state pension age (65 and over for men, 60 and over for women) was 1.26 million, a number that has doubled over the past decade. In Europe...