Next month the University of Bath launches the Institute for Policy Research (IPR), a new voice for inter-disciplinary research addressing national and international policy challenges.
In the run up to the launch on May 14 we are sending you a series of policy briefings demonstrating the impact our research is already having.
The first briefing deals with one of the most pressing issues facing the UK today, the impact of unemployment on real wages.
Research conducted on behalf of the Resolution Foundation by Professors Paul Gregg (University of Bath) and Stephen Machin (UCL) exposes the troubling relationship between unemployment and the stagnation of real wages since 2003. Their findings show that the increased sensitivity of real wages to unemployment has driven real wages down 5% more than was in case in previous recessions.
Their message is therefore that if policy-makers want to affect growth in real wages, particularly for middle to low income groups, they will need policies to address levels of unemployment and boost employment. The kind of sustained wage growth that signalled previous economic recovery will not occur if unemployment simply falls back to pre-recession levels.
This research has particular significance, given concerns raised in the recent report by Unicef UK, about the impact of rising unemployment and the falling living standards of families on the wellbeing of children, as well as worrying levels of youth unemployment.
Find out more about this research by reading the policy brief (or see our website: www.bath.ac.uk/ipr)
Further policy briefings will follow during the coming weeks.
Please also register your place at The University of Bath Institute for Policy Research Launch Conference: Policy and Power: Re-thinking the Role of Policy Research
Tuesday 14 May 2013.Among the speakers are political economist Will Hutton and Iain Stewart, geologist and TV presenter. Will Hutton will speak on the role of research in policy. Iain Stewart will chair a panel on climate change, a major focus for the new Institute.
Blimey. Willy Hutton, eh?
And wages go down in recessions, eh? Blow me down with a feather. Not that any classical economist would ever note that that is the reason that recessions don\’t last for ever.
Or that a more up to date one would note that unemployment seems remarkably low in this recession precisely because wages seem to have fallen more than they usually do.
Who the fuck have they got writing these reports? Andrew simms?
Unicef UK? Which silver-tounged chancer got that gig? Unemployment levels possibly possibly causing real wages to fall? Fuck me, what did I do wrong not to get their jobs?
well, blow me down – look at the list of staff of the Resolution Foundation
http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/us/our-team/
Labour party, Guardian, Demos, New Statesman, London School of Economics, The Fair Pay Network – pretty much only the NEF is missing for a Lefty “full house”
“In 2011, Paul (Gregg) was a member of a CBI steering group on Getting the UK Working, and a commission on youth unemployment run by AVECO and headed by David Miliband. He completed a review of Personalised Support and Conditionality in the Welfare System for the UK Department of Work and Pensions in 2009. He was formally a member of the Council of Economic Advisors at HM Treasury 1997-2006, where he worked on unemployment, welfare reform and child poverty.” Lefty, tick
Steve Machin – PhD on “The Impact of Unions on Economic Performance”, member of the Low Pay Commission, specialist in the economics of unions, minimum wage, education, etc. I’m going to hazard a guess that he might be a small-L liberal at the very least
So it’s a massive left-wing wankfest. Watch this space for Ritchie, the TUC and the NEF giving it approving coverage
Gregg is left wing, Machin I don’t know, but I do know they are both proper economists who know their onions, and I’d hazard have a better grasp of how labour market works than you or I. Neither of them will be unaware wages fall in recessions and that has some impact on hiring.
Earrrrhgh…
The ooni-versity of Baff lowers itself even further in my estimation (not that I suspect *any* disapproval from outside is of consequence anyway – let alone moi ).
Having already plumbed the dark abyss of policy driven evidence manufacturing in public health (Dr Ann Gilmore et al) will no doubt be contributing to this self regarding progressive academic trash.
That they adopt this “we set the agenda” attitude and promote the idea that they are somehow authoritative is exasperating in the extreme – who the fcuk gives that nod on funding this garbage?
Mind you… they’re only aping the twerps down the road who are simply embarrassing… The Cabot Institute that brought you this garbage recently. and also this (c/w health warning)
It’s not it’s beyond satire – it’s beyond any joking at all….
Pingback: A Link to the Past 12/05/2013 | In Defence of Liberty