E-mail as a Weapon in an Industrial Dispute

The case study on which this article is based describes a two-and-a-half month long strike of Israeli academic staff members. During the strike, e-mail was used as the major means of communication between the strikers. Analysis of the e-mail messages demonstrates that e-mail served as a secret weapon, enabling the strikers to succeed in what was presumed to be a hopeless battle.     

What Caused Rising Earnings Inequality in Britain? Evidence from Time Series, 1970–1993

The paper reviews some of the competing explanations for the rising levels of earnings inequality in Britain, such as skill shortages, rising unemployment, globalization, demographic factors and inflation. These explanations are rejected in favour of the idea that it was the major changes in the institutional pay-setting arrangements that were largely responsible for rising inequality. Union density figures and strike data are explored in support of this thesis.     

French Industrial Relations in the New World Economy – Nick Parsons

Books reviewed: French Industrial Relations in the New World Economy by Nick Parsons. Routledge, London and New York, 2005, xii + 222 pp., ISBN 0 415368529, £75.00.     

The Law of the Labour Market — Industrialization,Employment, and Legal Evolution – Simon Deakin and Frank Wilkinson

Books reviewed: The Law of the Labour Market — Industrialization, Employment, and Legal Evolution by Simon Deakin and Frank Wilkinson. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, xxv + 380 pp., ISBN 0 19 8152817, £60.00.     

Minimum Wage Impacts from a Prespecified Research Design: Canada 1981–1997

Neumark (2001 ) used the novel methodology of a prespecified research design to estimate the employment effect of minimum wage changes. We conducted our analysis in the “spirit” of this methodology based on Canadian data from 1981 to 1997. Our minimum wage elasticities are substantial, typically in the range of ?0.14 to ?0.44, with ?0.30 being a reasonable point estimate, and with the effects being larger after lagged adjustments.     

Does the ‘persistence of profits’ persist?: a study of company profits in Japan, 1964–97

Earlier, in a time-series study of the profit rates of Japanese manufacturing firms, Odagiri and Yamawaki concluded that profits persist. With the addition of 15 more years of data up to 1997, this conclusion is shown to stand the test of time. In particular, those firms estimated to earn higher-than-average long-run profit rates in the early study were again estimated to earn higher-than-average long-run profit rates. The force of convergence was also found to be at work; for instance, the firms most profitable in Period 1 (1964–82) were most likely to face a decline in estimated long-run profit rates from Period 1 to Period 2 (1983–97). With the use of two sets of data, the firm’s profit performance was found to be positively related to measures of market share. First, among a smaller sample of firms for which reliable market share data could be matched, market share was estimated to have a significant positive effect on long-run profit rate in either period. Secondly, among the entire sample of 357 firms, the long-run profit rate in either period was estimated to be positively associated with firm sales relative to industry sales, which presumably is a crude measure of market share.     

Trade Union Membership in Europe, 1960–1990: Rediscovering Local Unions

This article compares union density rates in seven Western European countries between 1960 and 1990. In contrast to conventional analyses, the paper argues that, in countries where workplace union organization is well developed, and where unions have managed to turn the official institutions for workers' participation such as works councils into extensions of their operations, they fared better during the 1960s and 1970s than in countries where this was not the case. This difference in the fate of unions was even more pronounced during the 1980s. Unions with strong locals lost few members or actually gained some, while unions without strong local structures saw union density drop by between one-quarter and one-third.