Uses of the workplace industrial relations surveys by British labour economists

The huge growth of nationally representative survey datasets based upon individuals and households has not been matched in most industrialised countries by a similar development of establishment or enterprise-based surveys. In Britain the imbalance has been partially redressed by the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey series, started in 1980. A few other countries have initiated similar developments. The British series is now a core resource for institutional labour economists and has generated a substantial literature. This paper discusses some of the specifically economic data gathered in the surveys and some of their uses.