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Wall Street Journal (US):
British household lending highest since financial crisis

1 May 2014

Research by the London School of Economics suggests wages won't grow substantially for some time, suggesting debt will grow further in order for consumer spending to continue to rise. ''It is quite clear that the economy is still well below full employment and there is a large amount of slack in the labor market,'' former Bank of England member David Blanchflower, currently a professor of economics at Dartmouth College in Hannover, N.H., and Stephen Machin, professor of economics at University College London and a member of the Low Pay Commission, said in the LSE research. ''We see little evidence of widespread skill shortages, which would push up wages; and public sector pay freezes with continuing redundancies continue to push down on workers' bargaining power.''

This article was published in the Wall Street Journal (US) on May 1, 2014
Link to article here

Related publications
Falling Real Wages, David Blanchflower and Stephen Machin. Article forthcoming in CentrePiece Vol 19, Issue 1, Spring 2014

Related links
Stephen Machin webpage
Labour Markets Programme webpage

Read more... Wall Street Journal (US)