Wages,fringe benefits and worker turnover

Linked employer–employee data from Norway are utilised to study how employers use wages and fringe benefits in managing their workforce. The analysis shows that on average across all establishments, we observe a positive correlation between wages and fringe benefits. This indicates the presence of labour market frictions and thus is not supportive of the classical frictionless hedonic wage model. Higher wages and more fringe benefits reduce the worker turnover rate. Fringe benefits have stronger negative impact on the excess worker turnover rate than indicated by the reported monetary value.     

Global problems,local solutions: unfree labour relations and seafarer employment with crewing agencies in China

This article documents and discusses a local labour control regime employed by Chinese crewing agencies to restrict the mobility of newly graduated officer seafarers. The shipping industry relies on a stable and skilled seafarer workforce on flexible employment, assembled globally with the help of local crewing agencies. A stable workforce and flexible employment do not seem easily compatible. This article examines how Chinese crewing agencies help manage this tension in China through analysing the experience of seafarers. It argues that to cater for the demand of international shipping companies, Chinese crewing agencies adopt a particular local labour control regime that re/produces unfree labour relations. The local control regime is built on existing institutional practices in China, structural weaknesses of seafarers and the disjunctions between the local institutional set‐ups and the global chains of labour supply.     

Understanding the employment relationship: markets,hierarchies and power

The employment relationship is fiercely contested both in theory and practice. This article examines recent theoretical initiatives in economics that have sought to illuminate the nature, specificity, and complexities of the employment relationship. It examines claims by proponents of the new institutional economics (NIE) that they can account for the historical emergence of authority relations and the dominance of hierarchical work organisations without reference to the forces of class power, coercion and labour subordination. The NIE is contrasted with the ‘old’ institutional economics (OIE) and the distinctive insights of an industrial relations perspective. The paper considers in conclusion whether a synthesis of NIE and industrial relations research would achieve a deeper understanding of the institutional forms of wage‐labour in contemporary capitalist economies.     

Competition and accessibility on a regional labour market

This paper presents an empirical study of competition among applicants for job openings in the Stockholm region and a multinomial logit model of allotment of job openings among applicants. The model is applied to the empirical data in a micro-oriented evaluation of accessibility to employment oppurtunities in the Stockholm region. The results suggest that competition has a strong and uneven effect on job searchers' prospects. Extensions and variations of the model are discussed.     

Reproducing low‐wage labour: capital accumulation,labour markets and young workers

Drawing on evidence from Greater Manchester, this article examines how structural changes in capital accumulation have created particular labour market outcomes, which have led to young people becoming a source of cheap labour for the growing low‐wage service economy. Greater Manchester has been selected as a case study because of the sectoral composition of its labour market and because levels of low pay for young workers are above the national low‐pay average of 40 per cent. The research reveals that it is necessary to move beyond sociological explanations that concentrate on the ‘essential youthfulness’ of young people and instead draw on analytical categories from political economy in order to understand the structural causes of young people's material circumstances.     

Training hold up and social labour markets

This paper seeks to analyse the impact on training outcomes of labour markets with a social dimension which enhances workers rights and benefits, including the right to unionise. The ILO in particular champions the cause of such social labour markets both on the grounds that they represent fundamental rights as well as on the grounds that they generate helpful economic outcomes. In the context of on the job training, this paper demonstrates that the benefits of such social labour markets are mixed. In particular, it demonstrates that whilst unionisation can increase productivity and mitigate training hold up, there are also risks to increasing union power.     

The economics of defence g labour markets

This article considers recent trends in the size of the Armed Forces and reviews the economics of military manpower. The transition from military to civilian employment and the employment experience of redundant defence workers are considered.     

Money,markets, meltdown: the 21st‐century crisis of labour

Analyses of the global crisis that erupted in 2007 in bank failures, liquidity shortages and business bankruptcies have obscured the connections between the real and monetary economies. Money market fetishism dominates. In the past, theories of economic crisis assigned a key causal role to labour's growing strength. In Britain, the focus of debate was trades unions' allegedly unregulated power at workplace level, but labour's presence and influence in state, business and workplace institutions has since receded. This article attempts to re‐insert labour into the contemporary analysis of the crisis and highlights the shifting relations between states, capital and labour in the age of austerity.     

Transnational labour markets and national wage setting systems in the EU

The article analyses the impact of European regulations of posting on different national wage systems. The article shows that the impact varied across the countries and has been filtered by the national institutions regulating the labour market. In the voluntarist wage setting systems of Germany and even Sweden, they have been a major factor bringing wages back into competition. The ability of national actors to act has been considerably curtailed by the European Court of Justice (EUJ), which has placed free competition above the basic rights of autonomous collective bargaining. Because of the divergent interests of Member States, this weakening of national actors cannot be compensated for by transnational agreements. This ‘negative integration’ brings with it a serious risk that the inclusiveness of European wage systems will be eroded by a series of cumulative effects.     

Globalization,labour markets and human resources in Asia-Pacific economies: an overview

Abstract This article argues that the impact of globalization on labour markets and human resources on the Asia-Pacific economies may be recognizable but is as yet relatively limited. The sheer variation of geography, population, economies, labour markets, IR and HRM systems there, as well as of values and the like, makes it difficult to talk of 'hard convergence'. We thus emphasize the notion of 'soft convergence'. The article develops a number of empirical propositions regarding the uneven impact of globalization on economies in the region. It concludes that any generalization on this theme should be greatly qualified.     

US foreign direct investment,macro markets and labour relations: the case of enlarged Europe

The rise of macro markets such as the European Single market recalibrates the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and national locations. Previous research has ignored the impact of macro markets theoretically and empirically. The article therefore challenges conventional wisdom on the impact of national properties on FDI.     

The local in the global: regions,employment systems and multinationals

This article examines how the international competition to attract and retain foreign direct investment shapes the governance of business and employment systems. Through an examination of global production networks and the changing role of the state in economic governance, it highlights the sub‐national regional space as an important level of institutional adaptation. Specifically, it explores how regions organise themselves to compete for inward investment, and the potential role of industrial relations actors within this. It argues that both research into multinational companies, and of the governance of employment systems more generally, need to incorporate an analysis of regional competition for productive investment more fully into their analysis.     

Employment contracts,job search theory,and labour turnover: Preliminary empirical: Results

The empirical implications of a model in which a worker participates in a labour market in which a job offer consists of a wage-hour pair are examined. Here, hours are not freely adjustable and the wage rate is typically different from the marginal value of leisure. A theoretical model is proposed; some natural conjectures on effects of wage changes are shown not to hold; and a preliminary empirical investigation based on Denver Income Maintenance Experiment data is undertaken.     

The spatial impact of employment centres on housing markets

The spatial impact of employment centres on housing markets. Spatial Economic Analysis. Local economic growth tends to affect neighbourhood house prices unevenly. It has been observed that prime locations experience price hikes far in excess of the surrounding local area. Yet, this phenomenon is not well captured by existing economic models. This research provides a model of spatial and temporal interactions between housing and employment markets. The results show that rapid growth of employment centres increases house prices in neighbouring locations even after adjusting for fundamentals. It is concluded that spatial clustering of companies creates an option value for existing and potential employees that goes beyond ease of access for commuting purposes.     

An application of search theory to the analysis of regional labour markets

This paper argues that the theoretical framework conventionally used by regional economists when analysing labour markets does not allow the spatial dimension of these markets to be discussed in a wholly satisfactory way. Search theory, which has been little used in regional economics, offers a means of overcoming this limitation. A search theory of labour markets is developed which includes as an exogenous variable the cost of travelling between home and work. The theory is shown to imply an inverse relationship between ‘accessibility to jobs’ and ‘duration of unemployment’.