There has been a dramatic increase in the number of self-employed workers in the UK since 1980. From a base of 2145 thousand in that year, the figure rose to a peak of 3547 thousand in 1990 and then fell back slightly as the recent recession took effect. This thesis examines these phenomena, in particular with respect to male workers, in a number of distinct ways. Initially, I conduct a survey of the statistics and trends in self-employment over time. This is supplemented by a review of past econometric attempts to explain these patterns and this serves to motivate my own research. A time series study is conducted using aggregate macro-economic data. Multivariate cointegration analysis is used to determine a long-run model of self-employment, with associated short-run dynamics captured in an Error Correction Model. The significant roles of personal finance, access to start-up capital and income relative to the wage employee sector are highlighted. These factors then form an integral part of the second study. This is a cross-section analysis of the probability of self-employment using the probit binary choice model. A consistent data set using thirteen years of the General Household Survey is constructed and applied to an expanded version of the model of Rees and Shah (1986). The resulting reduced-form probit regressions are then used in a 'growth accounting' decomposition which helps identify the factors responsible for the increase over the decade and the fall during 1990. Once again a substantial role is found for 'wealth' variables, whilst employment in the non-manufacturing sector and the professions is also highlighted. The fall in 1990 and beyond is predicted by the decomposition, as is the dominance of changing coefficients, over characteristics, in explaining the trends.

This study - which is the first of its kind for Jordan - uses the cost-benefit analysis techniques to calculate the internal rates of return to education for Jordan's domestic work force and for Jordanian migrant workers in Kuwait. The study uses data generated by a survey of 3,311 Jordanian workers conducted by the author during the fieldwork trip to Jordan and Kuwait in 1978. The analysis of the data was performed using the computer package "Special Package for Social Scientists" (SPSS) particularly the Multiple Regression Analysis Programme. In the introductory chapter, the study outlines the geographical setting and historical background of Jordan, the purpose of the study, its conceptual framework, the sources of data drawn upon and discusses the methodology of the fieldwork and the empirical analysis. In Chapter Two the study reviews the basic concept of cost-benefit analysis in education, its assumptions and the main criticisms and objections to its application in education. Chapter Three furnishes the necessary background to the analysis of the development of the educational system and the labour market in Jordan. Chapter Four discusses the migration of Jordanian manpower in the region with special reference to Kuwait. It also discusses the migrants' remittances and their importance to the Jordan economy. Chapters Five and Six analyse the results of the survey in Jordan and Kuwait. Using regression analysis equations, the age-education-earnings profiles are estimated for the domestic work force by sectors as well as for Jordanians working in Kuwait whose remittances constitute a very important item in Jordan's balance of payments and represent a significant social benefit to Jordan. Chapter Seven introduces the calculation of the costs of education in Jordan, combines these with the estimated age-education-earnings profiles (benefits) and produces estimates of the social and private rates of return to education in Jordan by sectors; it then compares these returns with yields on other investments and with returns obtained for other countries. Chapter Eight estimates the social and private rates of return to the education of Jordanians working in Kuwait where the study incorporates the workers' remittances into the calculations. These returns are compared with those obtained for Jordan's domestic workers where it is revealed that Jordanian migrants had generally increased the returns to their education, particularly at the preparatory and secondary levels.

This thesis analyses changes in labour productivity in Egyptian industry during 1965-1975. For this purpose, the individual performance of companies in the industry constitutes the basic evidence of the trends in productivity changes and the causes that lie behind those changes. However, productivity changes in industry at macro-level have also been investigated in order to test the correspondence with the results achieved at the micro-level. This macro-level investigation suggests further causes of productivity change. The setting of the thesis is the performance of the Egyptian industry in the period after the 1952 revolution. The basic changes in industrial development and the labour movement since the early industrialization of Mohammed Ali have been surveyed in order to show the problems associated with unemployment, rural migration, working-class movements - which affected the pattern of growth during the 1950's and 1960's - originated in the pre-revolutionary period. Using specified concepts, definitions, and measurements of productivity, different sectors of the Egyptian industry are analysed. The analyses demonstrate that labour, capital, and total factor productivity indices were declining during the period 1965-1975. The causes of such decline were found in rural migration during the 1950's and 1960's; small-scale industrial structure in the pre-revolution period; education policies and government commitment to employ all school-leavers, and the adverse effect on productivity of the political situation. Labour leglislation from 1961 is examined in some detail, and it is established that such legislation was the main adverse factor influencing labour productivity during the reference period. In order to bring together the adverse effect of labour legislation on intra-firm industrial relationships and the subsequent effect on labour productivity, different industrial sections were investigated. It is shown that industrial relations within the relevant industrial sections were deteriorating, largely due to labour leglislation. The main analytical tool used in this thesis is a primary data, collected directly from original sources, then refined, classified, and processed to suit our specific type of analysis. Without such detailed and dependable data, it would be impracticable to examine the relationship between labour legislation and labour performance in the industrial field, or to define in such a methodical way the changes in factor inputs and output and the consequent effects on labour productivity.

The past half century or so has witnessed an enormous upheaval in British society, as exemplified by changes in culture, aspirations and economic fortunes. This dissertation will elucidate upon a number of the economic aspects which have been at the heart of moulding the economic environment that we live in today, with the specific emphasis of the analysis being placed upon the labour market and its efficient and flexible functioning. The practical means adopted for this investigation will be decomposition analysis and three broad areas relating to gender, ethnicity and labour market institutions will be examined. Various decomposition techniques will be brought to bear upon at least one of these aspects to provide a contemporary insight into the operation of the UK labour market. Uniquely for current UK research in the area, the work upon public sector pay determination and trade union influence over wage levels is conducted along the entire length of the earnings distribution. Such a procedure is found to have an important bearing upon any conclusions that may otherwise have be drawn from a more limited investigation. An examination of the current labour market position of women and their access to economic resources reveals some interesting trends. Whilst it is found that women have experienced an improvement in their fortunes relative to men in recent times, there is still evidence that they are not treated on a par with their male counterparts. Similar conclusions are also reached from an investigation into the economic fortunes of individuals from the country's ethnic minorities vis-à-vis the white majority. Thus, in spite of a whole host of anti-discrimination legislation enacted by successive governments from as far back as the 1960s, the unfair treatment of female and ethnic minority workers remains a very real feature of British employment practices.

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For the past forty years, the public sector in the UK has been the subject of continuous reform. The aim of these reforms has been to control public sector expenditure, and introduce a culture more akin to management in the private sector. This shift in management practices has often been referred to as New Public Management (NPM (REF). Changes to pay determination in the public sector, and the introduction of performance-related pay (PRP) have been central to these new management practices. This thesis examines the role, dynamics and outcomes of PRP in the public sector in the UK, using Kent County Council (KCC) as a single case study. Despite extensive research on PRP since the 1980's, research studies have not comprehensively examined the unintended outcomes ofPRP schemes, such as employee demotivation. Most existing research relies on economic theories of pay determination and/or psychological theories of motivation, which do not lend themselves to the examination of the dynamic features of reward systems; but rather capture a static picture of particular aspects of pay schemes. This study develops a framework of the employment relationship to examine the role, dynamics and outcomes of Total Contribution Pay (TCP), the PRP scheme within KCC. The aim of this research is to examine the totality of TCP (i.e. role, dynamics and outcomes) within the conflictual and problematic nature of the employment relationship. The research concludes that there is a significant gap between the rhetoric and the reality ofTCP. An examination of all the dimensions of the employment relationship reveals that TCP has a number of unstated objectives including: controlling the wage bill; demonstrated political accountability; and renegotiating performance elements inherent within employees' zones of acceptance. Consistent with consecutive conservative and labour governments' ideologies of free market principles, the introduction of TCP within KCC, appeared to be driven by the desire to cope with external market demands, at the expense of internal labour demands, and in particular, employees' psychological contracts. Consequently, a . number of distorted outcomes were evident in KCC, such as withdrawal of discretionary effort, diversion of effort and work intensification.

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