Research Fellow, Associate Director of ADRC-Wales
02920870328
As an applied quantitative researcher, I have undertaken a variety of research projects examining a variety of issues related to employment and the labour market.
This research has been based on large scale primary data collection, as well as conducting analysis on secondary and administrative data sources. As Associate Director of the Wales Administrative Data Research Centre, I am responsible for managing the User Support function of ADRC-Wales.
Prior to joining WISERD, I worked at the Institute for Employment Research at Warwick University (1999-2006) and the Office for National Statistics (2006-09).
Machines, platforms and capabilities utilises mixed methods to examine the significance of different sectors of the gig economy within local labour markets, and includes the study of co-operative alternatives to more dominant forms of platform capitalism. Start date provided
Trade unions, grass roots activism and solidarity uses case studies from Europe, India and the UK, to examine forms of worker representation that are directly related to the changing role of women in work and society, and associated issues of civic gain and expansion. Start
Accounting for geographical variance in the union satisfaction gap
Evidence of spatial variance in the relationship between trade union membership and job satisfaction is limited. Using three nationally representative data sets, we examine lower levels of satisfaction among union members and considers how this relationship varies...
Family, Place and the Intergenerational Transmission of Union Membership
This article examines the importance of family, gender and place to the intergenerational transmission of trade union membership. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, we show that union membership among parents influences the union joining behaviour of young...
The Dynamics of Disability and Work in Britain
A journal article in The Manchester School. Volume 86, Issue 3. This paper examines the dynamic relationship between work-limiting disability and labour market outcomes using longitudinal data created by matching individuals in the Local Labour Force Survey (2004–10). By...
Age and Work-Related Health: Insights from the UK Labour Force Survey
A Journal Article in An International Journal of Employment Relations. Volume 54, Issue 1. Data from the UK Labour Force Survey (LFS) are used to examine two methodological issues in the analysis of the relationship between age and work-related health. First, the LFS is...
Do high-performance work practices exacerbate or mitigate the gender pay gap?
A journal article in Cambridge Journal of Economics. Volume 39, Issue 2. The impact of performance-oriented work practices on the gender pay gap has been the subject of considerable conjecture but little empirical investigation. Using the 2004 and 2011 British Workplace...
Collective learning, effective demand, loss of work and loss of direction: The growing regional divide
A journal article in Regional Studies. Volume 46, Issue 7. The local economy relies on a division of labour that develops highly specialized skills. In searching for an understanding of the growing work gap within the United Kingdom, emphasis is placed on recessions that...
Sources of variation in trade union membership across the UK: the case of Wales
A journal article in Industrial Relations. Volume 43, Issue 3. This article deals with issues relating to trade union density and the fact that while over the past 30 years, union densities have followed a declining path in all regions, this retreat was not uniform across...
The impact of the business cycle on occupational injuries in the UK
A journal article in Social Science & Medicine. Volume 69, Issue 2. This paper investigates the cyclical fluctuations in rates of workplace injury for the UK from 1986 to 2005. Time series analysis shows that, in aggregate terms, the rate of minor injuries is pro-cyclical...
Exploring neglected dimensions of social policy: The social division of welfare, fiscal welfare and the exemplar of local taxation in England
A journal article in Social Policy & Administration. Volume 43, Issue 1. Titmusss Social Division of Welfare (SDW) thesis is a vitally important but much neglected element of social policy analysis. This article seeks to explore the SDW, with a particular focus on fiscal...
How Does Workplace Monitoring Affect the Gender Wage Differential? Analysis of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey
A journal article in An International Journal of Employment Relations. Volume 46, Issue 4. This paper outlines the development of a new data source that combines workplace information from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) with employee data from the Annual...
Local taxation and the relationship between incomes and property values
A journal article in Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy. Volume 25. The authors' concern is with the relationship between household income and property value, within the context of the debate about the fairness of council taxöthe property-based system of local...
The family gap in pay in Europe: a cross-country study
A journal article in Labour Economics, Volume 12, Issue 4. In this paper we present estimates of the penalty in pay associated with motherhood for 11 European countries. Firstly, analysis of the European Community Household Panel Survey (ECHP) reveals that significant...
“Just think about it, next year, both the Durham Miners' Gala and the Notting Hill Carnival will take place in seats represented by Conservative MPs” Michael Gove, December 2019. The Durham Miners’ Gala, established in 1871, is the largest annual...
On Monday 9th September, a team of WISERD researchers from Cardiff University, Helen Blakely, Wil Chivers, Rhys Davies, Steve Davies and Katy Huxley, will share the latest findings from our research on trade union membership in the UK, to the TUC...
Today, WISERD launches a new interactive service allowing users to access data on union membership for over 400 unitary authority and local authority districts of Great Britain. UnionMaps allows users to produce area reports of union membership for a...
The Welsh Government has today published a report written by Alan Felstead and Rhys Davies which provides new evidence on the nature of employment in Wales. Work in Wales 2006-2017: Evidence from the Skills and Employment Surveys provides valuable...
On the 20th November, researchers from universities and third sector organisations came together at the London offices of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) for a symposium on the relationship between the family and civil society...
Schools can be hugely influential in students’ choices about higher education, irrespective of the grades they achieve, research has found. The Study led by WISERD’s Professor Chris Taylor followed the educational pathways of all Year 11 pupils...
Rhys Davies reveals how official figures have under-estimated the presence of trade unions within UK workplaces over many years. This morning, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published its latest estimates for trade...
The Welsh Government have announced plans to expand their pilot network for high achieving school pupils. WISERD and ADRC-Wales researchers Rhys Davies and Dr Suhaer Yunus contributed to the OB3 Research evaluation of the Seren Network, which helps...
New research highlights the need for policy support to be directed towards helping those who develop a disability to retain work owing to the lasting negative effect on employment even when they recover. WISERD academics Professor Melanie Jones and...
Rhys Davies presented his work at the Labour Force and Annual Population Surveys User Conference 2016 today, at the Royal Statistical Society in London. Data producers and data users came together to share updates on the development of these surveys...
Since the introduction of its well-being programme in 2010, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has introduced a number of questions into its surveys in an attempt to measure the well-being of the population in the UK. The Annual Population...
Declining levels of trade union membership is often cited as evidence that trade unions have become less relevant within the modern UK economy. In 2012, particular attention was given to this issue as levels of union membership among TUC affiliated...
Today WISERD launches its new webpages related to the research programme on trade unions within the WISERD Civil Society Centre: www.wiserd.ac.uk/unions 'Declining levels of trade union membership is often cited as evidence that trade unions have...
From 2018, companies with more than 250 employees will be required to make their gender pay gap publicly available online. Employers that fail to address gender pay disparities will also be highlighted in new league tables intended to drive progress...
Analysis released on assessment of outcomes for people leaving ESF projects. A report assessing the outcomes for those leaving ESF projects, designed to increase engagement in the labour market and improve the skill levels of the workforce, is now...
Professor Alan Felstead and Rhys Davies discussion following the launch of their research on the 2012 Skills and Employment Survey. They found that workers in Wales are paid less than elsewhere in Britain and do lower skilled jobs, but they were the...
A recent project on Welsh graduate mobility by WISERD researchers has been featured on the front page of the Western Mail today (January 5th 2012). The research project – ‘Stay, leave or return? Patterns of Welsh Graduate mobility’– was undertaken in...
WISERD is funding a boost to the Skills and Employment Survey to be carried out across Britain in 2012. The overarching aim of the survey is to collect data on skills and employment experiences of those working in Britain in 2012, making it a key and...
Conference paper "Making Sense of Official Estimates of Trade Union Membership" delivered at the UK Data Services Labour Force Survey Users Conference.
Rhys Davies presented a paper, co-authored with Alex Bryson,"What Do Unions Do In Wales? The Case of Job Satisfaction" Conference paper available here