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. Richard B. Freeman & David A. Wise, 1982. "The Youth Labor Market Problem: Its Nature Causes and Consequences," NBER Chapters, in: The Youth Labor Market Problem: Its Nature, Causes, and Consequences, pages 1-16, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. repec:bla:econom:v:58:y:1991:i:230:p:155-72 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. D Smeaton, 1992. "Self-Employment: Some Preliminary Findings," CEP Discussion Papers dp0096, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. repec:bla:econom:v:53:y:1986:i:210(s):p:s121-69 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. 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.
    8. Richard B. Freeman & Lawrence F. Katz, 1995. "Differences and Changes in Wage Structures," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number free95-1.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    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. Jeff Borland, 2000. "Economic Explanations of Earnings Distribution Trends in the International Literature and Application to New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 00/16, New Zealand Treasury.
    4. Daron Acemoglu, 2003. "Cross-Country Inequality Trends," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(485), pages 121-149, February.
    5. Denny, Kevin & Harmon, Colm & Lydon, Reamonn, 2002. "Cross Country Evidence on the Returns to Education: Patterns and Explanations," CEPR Discussion Papers 3199, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Davis, Donald R., 1998. "Technology, unemployment, and relative wages in a global economy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 1613-1633, November.
    7. Alan Carruth & Bill Collier & Andy Dickerson, 1999. "Inter-industry Wage Differences and Individual Heterogeneity: How Competitive is Wage Setting in the UK?," Studies in Economics 9914, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    8. Spilimbergo, Antonio & Londono, Juan Luis & Szekely, Miguel, 1999. "Income distribution, factor endowments, and trade openness," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 77-101, June.
    9. Eli Berman, 2000. "Does Factor-Biased Technological Change Stifle International Covergence? Evidence from Manufacturing," NBER Working Papers 7964, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Dennis J. Snower, 1998. "Causes of changing earnings inequality," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 69-133.
    11. 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.
    12. David Kucera, 2001. "Foreign Trade of Manufactures and Men and Women's Employment and Earnings in Germany and Japan," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 129-149.
    13. Snower, Dennis J., 1999. "Inequality of Earnings," CEPR Discussion Papers 2321, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. 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.
    15. Åsa Rosén & Etienne Wasmer, 2005. "Higher Education Levels, Firms’ Outside Options and the Wage Structure," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 19(4), pages 621-654, December.
    16. Olympia Bover & Samuel Bentolila & Manuel Arellano, 2000. "The Distribution of Earnings in Spain During the 1980s: the Effects of Skill, Unemployment, and Union Power," Working Papers 0015, Banco de España.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. Donald R. Davis, 1996. "Does European Unemployment Prop Up American Wages?," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1752, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.

    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.