Professor Keith Bender

Jaffrey Chair of Political Economy

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Email Address: kabender@abdn.ac.uk
Telephone Number: +44 (0)1224 273411
Office Address: S49 Edward Wright Building
Old Aberdeen Campus
Dunbar Street
AB24 3QY
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School/Department: Business School

Biography

I specialise in applied microeconomics, particularly interested in labour economics. Early in my career I focused on the role of institutions and labour market outcomes, looking at differences between union and nonunion workers, public and private sector workers, and the subjective wellbeing of retirees and retirement behaviour. More recently I have been looking at the interactions of health and labour economics, particularly the effect of different kinds of labour contracts on stress and the health of workers. In addition, I have previously done research on issues around in the educational and skills mismatch in the labour market, examining its incidence, causes and effects, particularly among the very highly educated. I am also a Co-Director of the University's Just Transition Lab, an interdisciplinary research centre examining transititions (such as the energy transition in the North East of Scotland) and how they impact communities and regions.

I am an Associate Editor of the and a .

In addition to working at the Unversity of Aberdeen, I have held previous positions at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the US Social Security Administration, as well as visiting positions at Louisiana State University, University of Potsdam, Giessen University and the National Institute for Labour Studies at Flinders University in Australia.

Performance Related Pay and Health

Research in economics have established a link between performance-related pay (PRP) – where workers’ pay is contingent upon their performance at work – and poor health. However, the causal direction of this relationship is not known. The aim of the project is to explore this relationship using an experimental work task and by measuring stress through cortisol. This paradigm will then be altered to measure other effects that may influence the relationship between PRP and stress.

Link to project website

Qualifications

PhD Economics
1994 - Duke University
MA Economics
1992 - Duke University
BA Economics
1990 - Furman University

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships: Director of External Engagement and Impact for the Business School.

Member of the Centre for Labour Market Research (CeLMR) and the Scottish Experimental Economics Laboratory (SEEL) and Co-Director of the Just Transition Lab (JTL).
External Memberships: Member of the Chartered Association of Business Schools Research Committee.

Nonexecutive Board Member of the community group .

Prizes and Awards

Principal's 2025 Award for Best Interdisciplinary Research Group for the Just Transition Lab.

Research

Research Overview

Labour Economics, Economic transitions, Subjective Well-being, Health Economics, Economics of Ageing

Member of the Centre for Labour Market Research (CeLMR), the Scottish Experimental Economics Laboratory (SEEL) and the Just Transition Lab (JTL).

Research Areas

Economics

View Research Area

Research Specialisms

Applied Economics

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is , published under the licence.

Current Research

My current research projects investigate:

Employment contracts and wellbeing
Labour market effects of energy transition
Educational mismatch
Labour supply elasticities near retirement
Union and nonunion forms of worker voice
Skills shortages from the firm's point of view
Labour market (earnings) discrimination

Past Research

Determinants of trade unionism

Public-private wage determination and differentials

Knowledge Exchange

Vlog: From Policy to Practice: Driving Research Impact in the Just Transition Lab:

Interview on Faculti, Performance-related Pay, Mental and Physiological Health found here:

Podcast: Performance-related Pay: The Good, The Bad, The Stressful found here: /engage/podcasts/explorathon-lunch-bytes-episode-2.php

School teaching resource on performance-related pay and stress:

Supervision

I generally supervise PhD topics in various aspects of applied labour economics.

Funding and Grants

'Nuclear Decommissioning and Just Transition', Nuclear Decommissioning Authority via the National Decommissioning Centre. (See here for more information: /geosciences/research/just-transition-lab/research-projects/nuclear-decommissioning-and-just-transition/)
'A Just Transition for Workers and Communities in the North-East of Scotland', Uplift Foundation (please see the following website for more information: /geosciences/research/research-projects-2144.php#panel2149)
'Performance-Related Pay and Health: An Interdisciplinary Study', ESRC (please see the following website for more information: /business/research/PRPH.php)

Teaching

Programmes

MA Economics
Undergraduate, 4 year, September start
This is the undergraduate Economics degree with all the joint honors programmes that are associated with it.
MSc International Human Resource Management
Postgraduate, 3 semester, September start

Courses

Teaching Responsibilities

For the 2025-26 first teaching session, I will be coordinating EC1006 (Economics of Business and Society) as well as helping with the teaching of BU501S: Employment Relations. In the second teaching session, I will be supervising undergraduate Economics Dissertations (EC4526) and giving a guest lecture in BU55H (Economics of Energy Transition).

As part of the Just Transition Lab, we have a CPD on an 'Introduction to Just Transition'. Click here for more information.

Publications

Update

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Biography

Performance Related Pay and Health

Qualifications

Memberships and Affiliations

Prizes and Awards

Research Overview

Research Areas

Economics

Research Specialisms

Current Research

Past Research

Knowledge Exchange

Supervision

Funding and Grants

Programmes

Courses

Teaching Responsibilities

Nuclear Decommissioning, Supply Chains and Skills: Achievements, Opportunities and Challenges

Performance-related Pay and Sorting into Stress

A place-based approach to measuring a just transition: Evidence from the north-east of Scotland

Managing the unwanted: an application of dispositional analysis on the Athena SWAN initiative in UK Business Schools

Regional Planning for a Just Transition - A case study for the North East of Scotland

Just Transition and Nuclear Decommissioning in Dounreay: Stakeholder Perspectives

Initial report to Just Transition Commission: Just transition activities, planning, and policy landscape in Aberdeen and the North East

Just Transition Policy in the Context of Nuclear Decommissioning in Dounreay

Performance-Related Pay: The Expected and the Unexpected

Performance-related pay, mental and physiological health

Stress in performance-related pay: the effect of payment contracts and social-evaluative threat

Measuring Just Transition: Indicators and scenarios for a Just Transition in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire

Response to Scottish Parliament Economy and Fair Work Committee - on Just Transition in the North East and Moray: How Can We Measure whether the Transition in the North East and Moray is Achieved in a ‘Just’ Fashion – What Data Will Need to Be Collected So Progress Can Be Measured?

Just Transition for Workers and Communities in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire: Rapid Evidence Review

Salivary cortisol in university students after the COVID-19 pandemic

Athena SWAN Gender Equality Plans and the Gendered Impact of COVID-19

Performance-Related Pay and Objective Measures of Health after Correcting for Sample Selection

The Political Economy of Skilled Workers and Innovation

Performance pay and assortative matching

Employment Contracts and Stress: Experimental Evidence

Employment contracts and stress: An experimental study

525 Years in the Pursuit of Truth Podcast: Economics at Aberdeen: The Legacy of Sir Thomas Jaffrey, Bt (1861-1953)

Stress and the Post-Covid Economy

A Sea Shanty Ode to EC1006

How does the type of payment you receive impact your health?

Performance pay and low-grade stress: An experimental study

Educational mismatch in developing countries: A review of the existing evidence

Performance-Related Pay: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly?

Economic insecurity: A socioeconomic determinant of mental health

The Unintended Consequences of Flexicurity: The Health Consequences of Flexible Employment

Educational mismatch and the earnings distribution

Pensions and Financing Retirement

Fact Check: would banning zero-hours contracts harm more people than it would help?

Educational mismatch and retirement

How zero-hours contracts could be making you ill

Performance Pay and Stress: An Experimental Study

Claims of employment discrimination and worker voice

Educational Mismatch and the Earnings Distribution: Where Does the Mismatch Bite?

Claims of Employment Discrimination and Worker Voice

Self-employment and the paradox of the contented female worker

Self-employment and the Paradox of the Contented Female Worker

Economic Fluctuations and Crime: Temporary and Persistent Effects

The Unintended Consequences of Flexicurity: The Health Consequences of Flexible Employment

Economic Fluctuations and Crime: Temporary and Persistent Effects

A reappraisal of the unemployment–mortality relationship: transitory and permanent effects

The living wage may cut poverty, but not by very much

The unintended consequences of the rat race: the detrimental effects of performance pay on health

Pensions and Financing Retirement

Performance Pay: Trends and Consequences Introduction

‘And He Laid Down His Hammer and He Died’: Health and Performance Pay

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Books and Reports

Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings

Contributions to Journals

Contributions to Specialist Publications

Non-textual Forms

Working Papers

Other Contributions