K. Mayhew

Ken Mayhew is a labour economist who has spent most of his career in Oxford University where he is Emeritus Professor of Education and Economic Performance and Emeritus Fellow in Economics at Pembroke College. He is a member of the UK Armed Forces Pay Review Body. He was also founding Director of SKOPE, a research centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance. Established in 1998 and originally funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, it is multi-disciplinary and is based in the Oxford University Department of Education.  Ken was Director from 1998 until 2014.

Ken read Modern History at Oxford and did his graduate work in Economics at the London School of Economics. After graduate school he joined Her Majesty’s Treasury before moving back to Oxford. In 1989 and 1990 he was Economic Director at the UK National Economic Development Office. Within Oxford he has been Deputy Master and Acting Master of Pembroke College and Chair of the University’s Social Studies Board.

His main research interests are in policy analysis, labour economics, human resource management and the economics of education and training. He has recently written on the last Labour Government’s economic record and the present Government’s strategy for growth. He worked on a Russell Sage Foundation project on the future of low paid work in the wealthy world, and is currently engaged on a variety of linked projects on the future of higher education as well as participating in an Open Research Area project on NEETs. Ken has worked as a consultant for many private and public sector organisations at home and abroad, including the European Commission, the OECD, the Omani Government, the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and the UK National Apprenticeship Service.

Ken is a member of the Advisory Board of the Welsh Institute of Social and Economic Research.  He is an editor of Oxford Economic Papers and of The Oxford Review of Economic Policy and is on the editorial board of The Oxford Review of Education.

Publications

  • “Educating for a cooperative society –building human and social capital: the role of government” in G. Redding, A. Drew and S. Crump (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Higher Education Systems and University Management, forthcoming 2019
  • “Inequality”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, forthcoming 2019 (with S. Wills)
  • Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training, Oxford University Press, 2017 (edited with J. Buchanan, D. Finegold and C. Warhurst)
  • “The economic and social benefits of skills” in Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training, 2017 (with I Grugulis and C. Holmes)
  • “Skills and training: the landscape” in Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training, 2017 (with J. Buchanan, D. Finegold and C. Warhurst)
  • “UK higher education and BREXIT”,  Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2017
  • Alternative Pathways into the Labour Market, CIPD 2016 (with Craig Holmes)
  • “The economics of higher education”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2016 (with C. Holmes)
  • “Human capital, growth and inequality”, Welsh Economic Review, 2016
  • “Labour market developments and their significance for vocational education and training in England: current concerns and debates”, Research in Comparative and International Education, 2015 (with A. Laczik)
  • “UK labour market policy then and now”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2015
  • Obituary: Derek Robinson, The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2015
  • Obituary: Derek Robinson, Royal Economic Society Newsletter, January 2015
  • Over-qualification and Skills Mismatch in the Graduate Labour Market, CIPD 2015 (with Craig Holmes)
  • “The winners and losers in the hourglass economy” in L. Archer et al., Understanding Employer Engagement in Education, Routledge, 2014 (with C. Holmes)
  • “The UK’s social model from New Deal to economic crisis” in J. E Dolvik and A. Martin (eds) European Social Models from Crisis to Crisis: Employment and Inequality in an Era of Monetary Integration, Oxford University Press, 2014 (with M. Wickham-Jones)
  • “Inequality: Wicked problems, labour market outcomes and the search for happy endings”, Oxford Review of Education, 2014 (with E. Keep)
  • Industrial Strategy and the Future of Skills Policy, CIPD, February 2014 (with E Keep)
  • “The Labour Government’s economic record”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2013 (with C. Adam and D. Cobham)
  • “Government and business: an introduction”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2013

Recent papers

  • Further Education College Participation in WorldSkills and Other Skills Competitions, Find A Future and SKOPE 2015 (with J. Allen and S. James)
  • WorldSkills Competitors and Entrepreneurship, Find A Future and SKOPE 2015 (with M. Chankseliani and S. James)
  • Training Managers: Benefits from and Barriers to WorldSkills UK Participation, Oxford University Consulting 2015 (with S. Wilde and S. James)
  • Benefits of Developing Vocational Excellence. A Report to the National Apprenticeship Service of Project 3 (Phase II) of the DUVE suite of projects, Skills Funding Agency 2015 (with M. Chankseliani and S. James)
  • Interim Evaluation Report on the Skills Competition CPD Programme, Oxford University Consulting 2014 (with S. James, T. Rodriguez Leal)
  • Final Evaluation Report on the Skills Competition CPD Programme. Oxford University Consulting 2014 (with S. James, T. Rodriguez Leal)
  • Learning Environments to Develop Vocational Excellence, SKOPE 2013 (with C. Holmes and S. James)
  • Benefits of Developing Vocational Excellence. A Report to the National Apprenticeship Service, National Apprenticeship Service 2013 (with M. Chankseliani, S. James and A. Laczik)
  • Report on Apprenticeships, Employer Engagement and Vocational Formation in England, Oxford University Consulting 2013 (with S. James, A. Laczik and M. Mordarska)
  • “SKOPE reflections on the June 2013 Spending Review”, SKOPE Issues Paper, 2013 (with E. Keep)
  • “Ten big questions for Higher Education”, SKOPE Issues Paper, 2012 (with C. Holmes & E. Keep)
  • “The changing shape of the UK jobs market and its implications for the bottom half of earners”, SKOPE Working Paper, 2012 (with C. Holmes)