Research Interests
Phil Murphy has been on the faculty at Swansea since 1991. Prior to this he held appointments at the Universities of East Anglia, Aberdeen and IUPUI (USA). He is an empirical labour economist who has used an extensive range of decomposition techniques to explain why otherwise comparable individuals enjoy more advantageous labour market outcomes than others. More recently he has completed work that has looked at the dynamics of the National Minimum Wage and produced several reports which have looked at the barriers to economic activity and contributed to the design of policy. 

PhD Areas and Topics in Economics 

Administration
2005 to date: Director of Research, School of Business and Economics
2002 to date: Postgraduate Research Faculty Board
2002 to date: Postgraduate Research Faculty Quality Committee
2005 to date: University Research Committee

External Activity
2006 to date: ESRC Research Student Open Competition
2004 to date: ESRC College of Assessors: Small Grant Applications
2004 to date: External examiner: University of Kent
2002 to date: Research Associate, Welsh Economy Labour Market Evaluation Research Centre.

Some Recent Publications:

• English Language Fluency and the Ethnic Wage Gap for Men in England and Wales, Economic Issues, 6 (1), 21-32, 2001, (with N. O'Leary, S. Drinkwater and D. Blackaby).
• The Gender Pay Gap in Wales, Research Discussion Series, Equal Opportunities Commission, Manchester, pp. 85, ISBN: 1 84206 004 X, 2001, (with D. Blackaby, N. Moore and N. O'Leary).
• White/Ethnic Minority Earnings and Employment Differentials in Britain: Evidence from the LFS, Oxford Economic Papers, 54 (2), 270-297, 2002, (with D. Blackaby, D. Leslie and N. O'Leary). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oep/54.2.270].
• The Effect of Unionisation on Wages in Great Britain: Estimates from the Labour Force Survey, Economic Issues, 8 (1), 33-45, 2003, (with D. Blackaby and N. O'Leary).
• Inactivity and Unemployment in Wales: A Contribution to the Policy Debate, Welsh Economic Review, 15, 28-32, 2003, (with D. Blackaby, M. Jones and N. O'Leary).
• Quantile Regression Estimates of the Union Wage Effect for Great Britain, The Manchester School, 72 (4), 497-514, 2004, (with N. O'Leary and D. Blackaby). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9957.2004.00405.x]
• Born in Britain: How are Native Ethnic Minorities Faring in the British Labour Market?, Economics Letters, 88 (3), 370-375, 2005, (with D. Blackaby, D. Leslie and N. O'Leary). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2005.03.008].
• The Public-Private Sector Training Gap For Full-Time Male Employees in Britain: Evidence from SCELI, International Journal of Economic Research, 2(2), 125-145, 2005, (with D. Blackaby, N. O’Leary and P. Latreille)
• A Change in the Earnings Penalty for British men with Working Wives: Evidence from the 1980s and 1990s, Labour Economics, 14 (1), 119-134, 2007, (with D Blackaby and P. Carlin). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2005.04.003].
• An Analysis of Reservation Wages for the Economically Inactive, Economics Letters, 97 (1), 1-5, 2007, (with D. Blackaby, N. O’Leary, P. Latreille, and P. Sloane). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2007.02.005].
• A Regional Comparison of Enterprise Patent Holdings: A Study of British and Irish Data, Research Policy, 36 (10), 1655-1665, 2007, (with L. Mainwaring and N. Moore). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2007.09.005].
• Employment Discrimination in Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement, forthcoming Economics Letters, 2008, (with D. Blackaby and N. O’Leary). [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2007.07.003].

Some Recent Reports:

• The Gender Pay Gap in Wales, Equal Opportunities Commission, pp85+iii, 2001, (with D. Blackaby, N. Moore and N. O’Leary).
• Returns to Education a Survey of Findings, Report to the Economic Research Unit, Welsh Assembly Government, pp72+iii, 2003, (with D. Blackaby, N. O’Leary and P. Sloane).
• Identifying Barriers to Economic Activity in Wales, part I, Report to the Welsh Assembly Government, ERAP, pp233+xv, 2003, (with D. Blackaby, M. Jones, R. Jones, P. Latreille, N. O’Leary and P. Sloane).
• Identifying Barriers to Economic Activity in Wales, part II, A Survey of the Economically Inactive in Three Areas of Special Interest, Report to the Welsh Assembly Government, ERAP, pp203+xvi, 2004, (with D. Blackaby, M. Jones, R. Jones, P. Latreille, N. O’Leary and P. Sloane).
• An Analysis of Flows Into and Out of the National Minimum Wage, Report for the Low Pay Commission, pp69+v, 2004, (with R. Jones, M. Jones, and P. Sloane).
• SMEs and Occupational Segregation in Wales, Report for the Welsh Development Agency and the Equal Opportunities Commission, pp229, 2005, (with D. Blackaby, A Henley, M. Jones, R. Jones, N. O’Leary and P. Sloane).
• The Welsh Language and Labour Market Inactivity, Report for the Welsh assembly Government, pp84, 2005, (with D. Blackaby, P.Latreille, N. O’Leary and P. Sloane).
• Explaining Earnings, Inactivity and Unemployment Differences between Wales and the Rest of the UK: 1972-2003, Report for the Welsh Assembly Government, pp149, 2005, (with D. Blackaby, S. Drinkwater and N. O’Leary).
• Further Analysis of Flows Into and Out of the National Minimum Wage, Report for the Low Pay Commission, pp72+i, 2006, (with R. Jones, M. Jones, and P. Sloane).