IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/4384.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Did the Thatcher Reforms Change British Labour Performance?

Author

Listed:
  • David G. Blanchflower
  • Richard B. Freeman

Abstract

In this paper we evaluate the success of policies that were implemented in the 1980s that were designed to improve the workings of the UK labour market. Our primary conclusion is that the Thatcherite reforms succeeded in their goals of weakening union power; may have marginally increased employment and wage responsiveness to market conditions and may have increased self-employment. They were accompanied by a substantial improvement in the labour market position of women. But the reforms failed to improve the responsiveness of real wages to unemployment; they were associated with a slower transition from nonemployment to employment for men; a devastating loss in full-time jobs for male workers and produced substantial seemingly noncompetitive increases in earnings inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • David G. Blanchflower & Richard B. Freeman, 1993. "Did the Thatcher Reforms Change British Labour Performance?," NBER Working Papers 4384, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:4384
    Note: LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w4384.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stewart, Mark B, 1991. "Union Wage Differentials in the Face of Changes in the Economic and Legal Environment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 58(230), pages 155-172, May.
    2. Richard B. Freeman & David A. Wise, 1982. "The Youth Labor Market Problem: Its Nature, Causes, and Consequences," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number free82-1, March.
    3. D Smeaton, 1992. "Self-Employment: Some Preliminary Findings," CEP Discussion Papers dp0096, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Lawrence F. Katz & Gary W. Loveman & David G. Blanchflower, 1995. "A Comparison of Changes in the Structure of Wages in Four OECD Countries," NBER Chapters, in: Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, pages 25-66, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Layard, Richard & Nickell, Stephen, 1986. "Unemployment in Britain," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 53(210(S)), pages 121-169, Supplemen.
    6. Blanchflower, David G & Millward, Neil & Oswald, Andrew J, 1991. "Unionism and Employment Behaviour," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(407), pages 815-834, July.
    7. Ingram, Peter N, 1991. "Ten Years of Manufacturing Wage Settlements: 1979-89," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 7(1), pages 93-106, Spring.
    8. D. Blanchflower, 1984. "Union Relative Wage Effects: A Cross Section Analysis Using Establishment Data," Working Papers 106, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    9. Lawrence F. Katz & Gary W. Loveman & David G. Blanchflower, 1993. "A Comparison of Changes in the Structure of Wages," NBER Working Papers 4297, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Richard B. Freeman & Lawrence F. Katz, 1995. "Differences and Changes in Wage Structures," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number free95-1, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Blanchflower, D-G, 1997. "Changes Over Time in Union Relative Wage Effects in Great Britain and the United States," Papers 15, Centre for Economic Performance & Institute of Economics.
    2. Blanchflower, David G., 2006. "A Cross-Country Study of Union Membership," IZA Discussion Papers 2016, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. David Metcalf, 1993. "Transformation of British Industrial Relations? Institutions, Conduct and Outcomes 1980-1990," CEP Discussion Papers dp0151, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Daron Acemoglu, 2003. "Cross-Country Inequality Trends," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(485), pages 121-149, February.
    5. Dennis J. Snower, 1998. "Causes of changing earnings inequality," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 69-133.
    6. Mark Sanders, 2005. "Market Size or Acceleration Effects; Comparing Hy pothese s to Explain Skill Biased Technical Change," Papers on Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy 2005-03, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group.
    7. Robert H. Topel, 1997. "Factor Proportions and Relative Wages: The Supply-Side Determinants of Wage Inequality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 55-74, Spring.
    8. Davis, Donald R., 1998. "Technology, unemployment, and relative wages in a global economy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 1613-1633, November.
    9. Borghans, Lex & ter Weel, Bas, 2007. "The diffusion of computers and the distribution of wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 715-748, April.
    10. Antonio Spilimbergo & Juan Luis Londoño & Miguel Székely, 1997. "Distribución del ingreso, dotación de factores y apertura comercial," Research Department Publications 4089, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    11. John T. Addison & Douglas A. Fox & Christopher J. Ruhm, 1996. "Trade Sensitivity, Technology, and Labor Displacement," NBER Working Papers 5621, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Ronald Bachmann & Peggy Bechara & Sandra Schaffner, 2012. "Wage Inequality and Wage Mobility in Europe," Ruhr Economic Papers 0386, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    13. Axel Dreher & Noel Gaston, 2007. "Has Globalisation Really had no Effect on Unions?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 165-186, May.
    14. Earle, John S. & Sakova, Zuzana, 1999. "Entrepreneurship from Scratch: Lessons on the Entry Decision into Self-Employment from Transition Economies," IZA Discussion Papers 79, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Trevor A. Reeve, 2002. "Factor endowments and industrial structure," International Finance Discussion Papers 731, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    16. Donald R. Davis, 1996. "Does European Unemployment Prop up American Wages?," NBER Working Papers 5620, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Blau Francine D & Kahn Lawrence M, 2007. "The Gender Pay Gap," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 4(4), pages 1-6, June.
    18. Millward, N., 1993. "Uses of the workplace industrial relations surveys by British labour economists," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20964, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Alain Delacroix, 2000. "Matching Between Heterogeneous Workers and Firms," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1523, Econometric Society.
    20. Gil Mehrez & Natacha Valla, 1998. "EMU: What if the Shocks are in the Labor Markets?," International Finance 9803001, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:4384. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.