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Topic outline

 

  • Time: 8 hours
    Level: Advanced

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • This unit will give you a stimulating and insightful account of the ways in which economists have tried to understand what labour market discrimination is and what its sources are. Notice the reference...
 

1 Synopsis

  • 1.1 A contentious issue Resource
  • This unit discusses a contentious issue in economics: why particular groups, such as women or ethnic minorities, are disadvantaged in the labour market. It compares different theoretical and empirical...
  • 1.2 Key ideas Resource
  • Labour market disadvantage can be manifested in a number of differences between the labour market experiences of different groups: differences of pay, of likelihood of unemployment, and differences due...
 

2 Discrimination in the labour market: introduction

 

3 Labour market disadvantage

  • 3.1 Gender-based disadvantage Resource
  • The post-war period has seen a significant increase in the participation of women in the labour market, with women now making up around 45 per cent of the UK workforce. Although women still undertake the...
  • 3.2 Ethnicity and disadvantage Resource
  • Detailed information on other disadvantaged groups in the UK is more limited. Recent studies of the labour market disadvantage faced by Britain's ethnic minorities indicate not only that they fare badly...
  • 3.3 Other disadvantaged groups Resource
  • Information on other disadvantaged groups, such as older workers or people with disabilities, is even harder to come by. The problems faced by older workers in the labour market have become an increasing...
 

4 Forms of discrimination

  • 4 Forms of discrimination Resource
  • We have already seen that labour market disadvantage can take various forms. Equally, discrimination in the labour market itself can manifest itself in different guises.
 

5 Neoclassical models of discrimination

  • 5.1 Introduction Resource
  • Our earlier discussion suggested that to understand labour market discrimination we need to answer two principal questions. First, to what extent does the observation that, on average, some groups in society...
  • 5.2 Becker's ‘employer taste’ model Resource
  • The most prominent neoclassical explanation of discrimination is based on the work of Gary Becker and develops the idea that some workers, employers or customers do not want to work with or come into contact...
  • 5.3 Statistical discrimination Resource
  • Human capital theory has been used to show how investments in education and training lead to higher levels of earning. One reason why education and training are referred to as investments is because their...
  • 5.4 Empirical evidence Resource
  • The neoclassical approach to discrimination produces a number of different explanations for why discrimination may exist in the labour market. Empirical analysis has tended, however, to focus not so much...
 

6 Segmented labour markets

  • 6.1 Introduction Resource
  • In recent years different explanations of how labour markets operate have been proposed by a number of economists dissatisfied with neoclassical theory in general and its explanation for labour market...
  • 6.2 Dual labour market theory Resource
  • According to this theory, the labour market is composed of self-contained sub-markets or segments. Segmentation economists argue that ignoring the different identities of these segments and the constraints...
  • 6.3 The roots of segmentation Resource
  • Why does segmentation occur? One approach to this question focuses upon the evolution of the product markets, from the competitive and the localised to the producer dominated, and from the national to...
  • 6.4 Empirical analysis Resource
  • Three key hypotheses have been the focus of empirical evaluation of the segmented labour market theory. First, that the labour market can be represented as comprising at least two well-defined and self-contained...
 

7 Policy issues

  • 7 Policy issues Resource
  • There are several issues we need to address concerning anti-discrimination policy. The first involves the different policy prescriptions that can be derived from the theories we have considered. The various...
 

8 Conclusion

  • 8 Conclusion Resource
  • In this unit we have examined a number of explanations for why labour market disadvantage, such as low pay, unemployment, and so on, falls disproportionately on certain groups within the labour market....
 

9 Activities

  • 9 Activities Resource
  • The New Earnings Survey publish various labour market statistics including the following information.
 

References and Acknowledgements

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