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Henry Phelps Brown (1906–1994)

  • Peter A. RiachEmail author
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Abstract

Henry Phelps Brown was Professor of Labour Economics at LSE from 1947 to 1968. This was a time when trade unions in Britain were powerful, exchange rates were fixed, and governments intervened in setting wage and price targets; it was also a time when economists, particularly at the School, embraced economic history. Phelps Brown’s contributions must be assessed in this context. He recognised that labour economists needed to understand the institutional characteristics of the labour market, so he investigated the development of British trade unions and their role in the system of industrial relations. He also constructed various historical series, including money wages and labour productivity. Finally, Phelps Brown provided a precursor of the Phillips curve and a devastating critique of the Cobb-Douglas production function.

Keywords

Wages Trade unions Productivity Inequality Cobb-Douglas Wage share Phillips curve 
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References

Main Works by Henry Phelps Brown

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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)BonnGermany

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