Updating the determinants of firm performance: Estimation using the 1998 UK Workplace Employee Relations Survey

We examine the determinants of establishment performance in the UK, using c ross-sectional data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey to re plicate research by Fernie and Metcalf (1995) who used data from the 1990 W orkplace Employee Relations Survey; specifically, we test whether employee representation, contingent pay and efforts to boost employee participation affect a set of economic and industrial relations outcome indicators in the manner they suggest. We also re-estimate the influential WERS90-based stud y of Machin and Stewart (1996) on the links between union status and financ ial performance. In both cases we report very different results.