EARNINGS, UNEMPLOYMENT and HOUSE PRICES: SOME RESULTS FOR BRITISH COUNTIES
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1995.tb01168.x |
| Date | 01 November 1995 |
| Published date | 01 November 1995 |
| Author | Neil Manning |
Srorrish
Journal
of
Political
ECOIIDIII~,
Vol.
42.
No.
4.
November
I995
0
Scottish Economic
Socicty
1995.
Published by Blackwcll Publishers. 108Cowley Road,
Oxford
OX4
1JF.
UK
and
238
Main
Smt.
Cambridge. MA
02142.
USA
EARNINGS, UNEMPLOYMENT AND HOUSE
PRICES: SOME RESULTS FOR BRITISH
COUNTIES
Neil Manning'
I
INTRODUCTION
Over the past decade
or
so,
many studies have assessed the importance
of
factors which influence the level of an individual's earnings. These factors may
be measured at the microeconomic level and an individual's age, education, race
and occupation have all featured prominently in empirical investigations of
Mincer-type earnings functions both in Britain and elsewhere.
Of
course, these
human capital variables are not the sole determinants
of
earnings and have been
supplemented in empirical work by such macroeconomic factors as unemploy-
ment and living costs.
The literature in the area has, to a large extent, been hampered by limitations
of
the available datasets, each
of
which
has
merits and de-merits.
In
Britain,
social surveys such as the General Household Survey, the Family Expenditure
Survey and the National Child Development Survey all contain a wealth of
information on the labour market characteristics of the individual and their
family. The former
two
surveys have been undertaken for some time now but
possess one crucial drawback which is the focus of the present paper: the
individuals' area
of
residence
is
only classified at the standard CSO regional
level.
'
Very little empirical work has considered
UK
earnings determination at a
finer level of geographic disaggregation and the present paper
is
aimed to
partially redress this imbalance. The paper proceeds to address three key issues.
First, is there any qualitative difference in the estimates of earnings equations
which differ only in the spatial
units
used in data reporting?
In
other words, do
county data provide similar parameter estimates as equivalent regional data
when the sample period and estimation techniques are held constant? Secondly,
are unemployment rates
and
house prices significant determinants of earnings at
the county level? Finally, does the relationship between earnings and unemploy-
ment or house prices differ between manual and non-manual males as may
be
suggested by previous research, such as Jackman and Savouri (1992) and
Manning (1994a)?
'
Micro-data sets classify individuals
to
a maximum
of
24
region/metropolitan areas; there
are
I1
standard
CSO
regions inclusive of London/remainder
of
South East.
University
of
Wales, Swansea
To continue reading
Request your trial