Professor David Blackaby

Job Title: WISERD Co-Director & leader of WISERD Advanced Quantitative Research Programme

Institution: Swansea University

Email: d.h.blackaby@swan.ac.uk

Telephone: 01792 602103

Role: Responsibility for leading the Swansea team & overall responsibility for leading the advanced quantitative research programme.

Biography

David Blackaby is Professor of Economics at Swansea University. Main areas of research are labour markets, regional economics, public policy and the Welsh Economy. Between 1996 and 2005 he was Head of the Economics Department and between 2005 and 2008  Deputy Head of the School of Business and Economics at Swansea University. Between 1991 and 1995 was convenor of the DfEE funded Labour Economics Study Group (EMRU). Was the academic advisor to BSL/MORI on the 2002 Future Skills Wales Project and a member of the WDA Economics Panel 1998-2001. Was a member of the WEFO Structural Funds – All Wales Policy Group between 2002- 2004.  Was a member of the National Assembly: Independent Expert Group on Economic and Social Indicators 2002 to 2004. Was a member of the Economics and Econometrics panel and the Business and Management Panel for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.  In 1999 and 2006 was a member of The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education Panel, responsible for writing the Benchmark statement for Economics.  Between 2006 and 2010 was a member of the Research Resources Board of the ESRC. Senior Examiner (Economics) for ESRC PhD Competition 2003-2006.  Chair of ESRC Postgraduate Training Recognition Panel for Economics 2007, deputy chair 2005.    Currently member of the NHS Pay Review Body, Director of WELMERC and Associate Director of Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC).  He has given evidence to the Economic Committee of WG on GDP Targeting and the Enterprise and Learning Committee on Business Support in the 2009 Recession.  In 2010, he gave a presentation on Comparing Business Environments Wales and the Skills Agenda at the IWA National Economic Conference.

Research Interests

David’s main areas of research are labour markets, regional economics, public policy and the Welsh Economy

Current Research

The Scale and Nature of Spatial Disparities, Labour Market Discrimination, Productivity Performance in Wales, Regional Inequalities in Wales

Click here to view David’s official Swansea University bio page.

Selected Publications

Journals

Blackaby D, Murphy P, 2009, ‘The economic downturn and the Welsh economy’ The Bevan Foundation Review 12(Summer 2009) (Available here)

Leslie D, Blackaby D, Murphy P, O’Leary N, 2009, ‘The employment and earnings of Britain’s senior citizens’ Economic Issues 14(2) pp 1-26 (Available here)

Beale A, Blackaby D H, Mainwaring L, 2008, ‘University Patenting in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: A Comparative Analysis’ Higher Education Quarterly 62(1/2) pp 101-119 (Available here)

Blackaby D H, Murphy P D, O’Leary N C, 2008, ‘Employment discrimination in Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement’ Economics Letters 99(2) pp 282-285 (Available here)

Murphy P D, Latreille P L, Jones M, Blackaby D H, 2008, ‘Is there a Public Sector Training Advantage?  Evidence from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey’ British Journal of Industrial Relations 46(4) pp 674-701 (Available here)

Blackaby D H, Carlin P S, Murphy P D, 2007, ‘A Change in the Earnings Penalty for British Men with Working Wives: Evidence from the 1980s and 1990s’ Labour Economics 14(1) pp 119-134 (Available here)

Blackaby D H, Leslie D G, Murphy P D, O’Leary N C, 2005, ‘Born in Britain: How are Native Ethnic Minorities Faring in the British Labour Market’ Economic Letters 88(3) pp 370-375 (Available here)

Booth A, Frank J, Blackaby D H, 2005, ‘Outside Offers and the Gender Pay Gap: Empirical Evidence from the UK Academic Labour Market’ The Economic Journal 115(501) pp F81-F107 (Available here)

O’Leary N C, Murphy P D, Blackaby D H, 2004, ‘Quantile Regression Estimates of the Union Wage Effect for Great Britain’ The Manchester School 72(4) pp 497-514 (Available here)

Blackaby D H, Leslie D G, Murphy P D, O’Leary N C, 2002, ‘White/Ethnic Minority Earnings and Employment Differentials in Britain: Evidence from the LFS’ Oxford Economic Papers 54(2) pp 270-297

Blackaby D H, Frank J, 2000, ’Ethnic and Other Minority Representation in UK Academic Economics’ Economic Journal 110(464) pp F293-311 (Available here)

Blackaby D H, Murphy P D, O’Leary N C, 1999, ‘The Payment of Public Sector Workers in the UK: Reconciliation with North-American Findings’ Economics Letters 65(2) pp 239-243 (Available here)

Blackaby D H, Clark K, Leslie D G, Murphy P D, 1997, ’The distribution of male and female earnings 1973-91 : Evidence for Britain’ Oxford Economic Papers 49(2) pp 356-272 (Available here)

Blackaby D H, Murphy P D, 1995, ‘Earnings, Unemployment and Britain’s North-South Divide : Real or Imaginary?’  Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 57(4) pp 483-508

Blackaby D H, Manning D N, 1992, ‘Regional Earnings and Unemployment – A Simultaneous Approach’ Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 54(4) pp 481-501

Murphy P D, Sloane P J, Blackaby D H, 1992, ‘The Effects of Trade Unions on the Distribution of Earnings:  A Sample Selectivity Approach’ Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 54(4) pp 517-542

Blackaby D H, Bladen-Hovell R C, Symons E J, 1991, ‘Unemployment, Duration and Wage Determination in the UK, Evidence from the FES 1980-86″ Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 53(4) pp 377-399

Blackaby D H, Manning D N, 1990, ‘The North-South Divide:  Questions of Existence and Stability’ The Economic Journal 100(401) pp 510-527 (Available here)

Reports

Robinson C, Carey J, Blackaby D, 2012, ‘Firm performance in Wales – An analysis of productivity using company accounts’  WISERD/WPS/007 (Available here)

Drinkwater S, Blackaby D, Murphy P, 2011, ‘The Welsh Labour Market Following the Great Recession’ WISERD/PBS/002 (Available here)

Jones M, Blackaby D, Murphy P, 2011, ‘Childhood Obesity in Wales’ The Welsh Economic Review 22(Spring) pp 36-42

Blackaby D, Drinkwater S, Jones M, Murphy P, O’Leary N, Perman M, Souabni S, 2010, ‘Modeling and Explaining Regional Differences in Economic Prosperity within Wales’ (A report to the Welsh Government) (Available here)

Jones M, Blackaby D, Murphy P, 2010, ‘An Investigation into Regional Differences in Child health and Cognitive Function’ An Investigation into Regional Differences in Child health and Cognitive Function (A report to the The Welsh Government) (Available here)

Blackaby D, 2009, ‘A Living Wage in Wales’ Report to the Welsh Government