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Alex Bryson

University College London, UK, and IZA, Germany

There are many misconceptions about the role of trade unions in modern labour markets. I hope this review, like others in this excellent World of Labor project, will help inform policymakers and academics alike when thinking about trade unionism and its impact on workers and firms

IZA World of Labor role

Author, Topic spokesperson

Current position

Professor of Quantitative Social Science, Department of Social Science, University College London, Institute of Education, UK

Research interest

Labour economics, industrial relations, policy evaluation

Website

http://bit.ly/Bryson_IZApage

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

Member of the Workplace Employment Relations Survey Steering Committee

Past positions

Head of Employment Group and Principal Research Fellow, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, UK (2012–2015); Editor, British Journal of Industrial Relations (2005–2009); Wertheim Fellow, Harvard Law School and National Bureau of Economic Research (2005–2006)

Qualifications

PhD Sociology, University of Bristol, 2013

Selected publications

  • Employment Relations in the Shadow of Recession: Findings from the 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Study. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013 (with B. van Wanrooy, H. Bewley, J. Forth, L. Stokes, and S. Wood).

  • The Evolution of the Modern British Workplace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009 (W. Brown, J. Forth, and K. Whitfield).

  • “What effect do unions have on wages now and would ‘what do unions do?’ be surprised.” In: Bennett, J.T., and B. E. Kaufman (eds). What Do Unions Do?: A Twenty-Year Perspective. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2007; pp. 79–113 (with D. Blanchflower).

  • Inside the Workplace: Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey. London: Routledge, 2006 (with B. Kersley, C. Alpin, J. Forth, H. Bewley, G. Dix, and S. Oxenbridge).

  • All Change at Work? London: Routledge, 2000 (with N. Millward and J. Forth).

article(s)

  • Union wage effects

    What are the economic implications of union wage bargaining for workers, firms, and society?

    Alex Bryson, July 2014
    Despite declining bargaining power, unions continue to generate a wage premium. Some feel collective bargaining has had its day. Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have recently called for the removal of bargaining rights from workers in the name of wage and employment flexibility, yet unions often work in tandem with employers for mutual gain based on productivity growth. If this is where the premium originates, then firms and workers benefit. Without unions bargaining successfully to raise worker wages, income inequality would almost certainly be higher than it is.
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