Log in
Research conducted by economists at Swansea University has revealed deeply entrenched labour market inequalities. This research has directly informed policy and related debates on a broad range of inequalities in Wales and the UK, and skill mismatches in the EU. In particular, this research:
Southampton based research on the interactions of a minimum wage policy and tax evasion has had a direct and clearly acknowledged impact on shaping the labour market policies of Hungary and other Southern European countries, while its research on the role of universal versus targeted benefits on employment has had a significant impact on Swedish fiscal policy. Looking at labour market policies in a broader context and from a behavioural economics point of view (e.g. payroll giving), our findings on charitable giving and workers' motivation have also been used by the UK government's Behavioural Insights Team and impacted its recommendations on giving. The same research is currently influencing US policy on the tax treatment of charitable contributions.
This case outlines the research into Enterprise Education and the concept of the Enterprising University and impacts related to the E-college, female entrepreneurship education programmes, UHOVI and A4B project on Business Angels.
The E-College Wales was an e-learning project pioneered and led by Pickernell and Miller at the Centre for Enterprise at USW in collaboration with six partner colleges across Wales, supported by the European Social Fund (ESF). Its aim was to provide an accessible, innovative, online learning environment and to enhance learning opportunities for individuals in Wales to improve their career prospects either through creating their own businesses or improving their competences and skills.
Researchers at the University of Aberdeen's Health Economics Research Unit (HERU) have developed a theoretical model of the causes of local variations in the competitiveness of pay in the public sector and shown the impact of these variations on health and teaching services. Recommendations arising from the research have changed the way funding is distributed to: Primary Care Trusts in England and Wales; the adjustment for excess costs in the resource allocation formula for health services in Scotland; and the structure of regional pay for doctors in the UK. The evidence also underpinned proposals by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2012 to introduce local pay for health service and teaching professionals in England.
The claimed impact, as defined by REF guidance, is therefore on policy debate and decisions, legislation and service delivery influenced by research.
Professor Pedro Martins' research expertise is on labour economics, including dismissals, wages and social returns of education. From June 2011 until February 2013, he was seconded from Queen Mary to undertake the key role of Portuguese Secretary of State for Employment. Informed by his research, he initiated and implemented a programme of effective labour market legislative reforms over a relatively short period of time. A reformed labour code (four changes of law) and several ordnances, resolutions and other policy change were the outcome, affecting individual dismissals, working time, collective bargaining, training and active labour market policies. His aim was to reduce unemployment by partly deregulating the labour market, so reducing the disincentives for firms to employ people, and by promoting active labour market policies to raise skill levels within the economy. The reforms affected approximately five million people. Following the reforms, Portugal moved to eighth place (in 2009 it was first) out of 34 countries in terms of the strength of permanent employees' protection (OECD Employment Outlook 2012); and unemployment fell, from 17.7% to 15.6%, and GDP increased, by 1.3%, between the first and third quarters of 2013.
Traditionally seaside towns have been one of the least understood of Britain's `problem areas'. Research by Beatty and Fothergill in the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) has broken new ground by developing and applying methodologies to assemble systematic evidence on the population and economy of seaside towns, dispelling myths about their decline, providing more subtle view of trends around the coast, documenting economic growth as well as unemployment, and highlighting the diversity of local experience. Impact has been achieved through the dissemination of findings and the provision of advice and guidance to government, policy makers and politicians. The major beneficiaries of this research have been policy makers and politicians in central and local government.
"Gender equality in employment is recognised by policy makers and advisors (such as the Low Pay Commission) as an extremely important policy area." (Factual statement 1. Chief Economist and Deputy Secretary, Low Pay Commission); affecting as it does, all employees in the UK labour market. Research at the University of York analyses the gender wage gap at a national level, making a new contribution to the understanding of wage inequality in the UK. The three major stakeholder government departments (Low Pay Commission, Government Equalities Office, and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) have used the research findings and policy recommendations in their wage policy development to reduce the gender wage gap in the UK. The report was personally identified by the Minister for Employment Relations as making an important contribution to the development of policy.
Research by Alan Manning and colleagues at LSE's Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) has contributed to widespread acceptance of the view that minimum wages set at an appropriate level are a valuable tool of public policy. CEP researchers had a direct impact on the design of the UK's National Minimum Wage (NMW) and thus on the living standards of poorer workers and their families. They provided the intellectual context for the policy, advised on its implementation and evaluated its effects. CEP research has had some initial impact on the introduction of the minimum wage in Hong Kong. It has also influenced debates around the world about the introduction or modification of minimum wages.
Bell and Blanchflower's research on youth unemployment has been highly influential in affecting policy directions in both the UK and Europe during the Great Recession. It has also generated substantial public concern for a `lost generation' of unemployed young people through their sustained engagement in media and public debate.
European employment research at Manchester Business School's European Work and Employment Research Centre (EWERC) has had a significant impact on international policymaking bodies, specifically the European Commission (EC), the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Demonstrated policy impact includes: the defining and strengthening of a gender mainstreaming and gender pay policy in Europe; technical improvements in the European Commission's approach to the European Employment Strategy (EES) (which all EU member states are required to report on and implement); and greater precision (regarding up-to-date data and the functioning of labour market institutions) in EC and ILO policy recommendations on low wage work, minimum wages and regulation for decent work.