Part of the "conventional wisdom " on the subject of the size distribution of earnings is that earnings are approximately lognormal, but with an upper tail which is better described by the Pareto function. 1 The primary purpose of this paper is to re-examine these propositions, using British New Earnings Survey data disaggregated by occupational groups. We have several reasons for feeling that such a re-examination is timely. First, most previous studies have considered the distribution among all employees, while theoretical considerations suggest that disaggregated data might be more appropriate. We elaborate this point in Section 1 of the paper. Second, the method of estimating the parameters of the Pareto and lognormal functions has not always been given the attention it deserves. In Section 2 we address this issue, and also refer briefly to the related one of goodness of fit. The remainder of the paper presents parameter estimates for the Pareto and lognormal functions, using first aggregate data (Section 3), and then distributions within occupational groups (Section 4). Section 5 compares these two sets of results, and at the

We examine cyclicality of strike frequency and incidence, using Canadian data on strikes and contracts. Total strike frequency exhibits significant procyclicality, to which within-contract strikes contribute appreciably. Evidence is weaker for procyclical behavior of contract-expiry strikes, both in total and disaggregated by issue. Strike incidence is also procyclical, particularly in manufacturing, though the procyclicality here is confined to strikes over nonwage issues. These results mirror those obtained by analyzing the frequency of strikes in the contract data. Industry-specific cyclical variables positively affect strike incidence in manufacturing, but region-specific variables have no effect.

Canadian data on strikes between 1946 and 1983 are used to estimate linear regression models for the logarithm of completed duration. A thorough investigation of the influence of the business cycle reveals strong support for the hypothesis that strike durations are countercyclical. The cyclical effect is shown to be robust to both the choice of cyclical variable and the econometric specification, and the magnitude of the effect is quite substantial. Experimentation with different representations of the cycle reveals that it is difficult to improve on a simple formulation involving a single continuous variable.

Canadian data on strikes between 1946 and 1983 are used to estimate linear regression models for the logarithm of completed duration. A thorough investigation of the influence of the business cycle reveals strong support for the hypothesis that strike durations are countercyclical. The cyclical effect is shown to be robust to both the choice of cyclical variable and the econometric specification, and the magnitude of the effect is quite substantial. Experimentation with different representations of the cycle reveals that it is difficult to improve on a simple formulation involving a single continuous variable.