Labour Market Theory and Empirical Research

E

conomic

theory provides a model of the operation of the labour market which helps to explain wage differentials and the allocation of labour between employers, occupations, industries, and regions as the market tends to move toward equilibrium. Marshall, for example, pointed to the ‘tendency’ of competition to result in ‘equality of efficiency-earnings in the same district’, and he added:

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This tendency will be the stronger, the greater is the mobility of labour, the less strictly specialized it is, the more keenly parents are on the look-out for the most advantageous occupations for their children, the more rapidly they are able to adapt themselves to changes in economic conditions, and lastly the slower and the less violent these changes are.