David Marsden (OW 1968)

(16 September 1950 – 10 August 2021)

The following obituary was provided by David’s wife Alice Lam.

Professor David Marsden had a distinguished academic career and was an internationally recognised expert on industrial relations, labour markets and employment. He died unexpectedly on 10th August 2021 (aged 70), following complications of cancer treatment.

After leaving MCS in 1968, David went to Paris to improve his French while working as an English teaching assistant. He also attended Sorbonne University while there. He returned to England a year later to study PPE at Hertford College, Oxford and then went to Leeds for his MA in Labour Economics. After that, he went to pursue his doctorate at Université d’Aix-Marseille II in Aix-en-Provence.

On returning to England in 1976, David worked as Senior Research Officer at the Department of Employment in London. A year later, he moved to the European Research Centre at Sussex University where he conducted research on wage structures and inflation in Western Europe. David joined the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) as a lecturer in 1980 in the Department of Industrial Relations where he was later promoted to Professor. Throughout his successful career at LSE spanning over four decades, David worked on a wide range of topics including employment and industrial relations, youth employment and training, performance-related pay, performance management and individual employee voice. He was also an advisor to many international bodies – the European Union, the International Labour Organization, the OECD, the World Bank and several British trade unions.

In the late-80s, David wrote an influential book called The End of Economic Man? Custom and Competition in Labour Markets, which was translated into French, Spanish and Russian. This book was well ahead of its time. It sought to distil standard economics but also custom and practice, which was quite an ambitious task. David was culturally curious and had a passion for cross-national comparative research. He is well-recognised for his contribution to understanding institutional diversity, best exhibited in another influential book A Theory of Employment Systems: Micro-Foundations of Societal Diversity (1999, Oxford University Press). David was hugely appreciated by his colleagues and students not only as a dedicated scholar and teacher but for his kindness, warmth and generosity.

David was a talented and enthusiastic linguist: he spoke several European languages and successfully mastered Chinese Mandarin in his later years. Another passion throughout David’s life was running – through sun, wind, rain and mud – it was an activity that he never stopped. The locals in Chiswick, where he lived for nearly two decades, referred to him as the ‘Kew Runner’.

As well as a scholar and runner, David was a devoted father and husband. He never once failed to make an effort to join in with the hobbies of our son, Antony – from football to rowing to boxing – he would always happily get involved and just enjoyed spending time with his beloved son. To me, he was a tender-loving husband, my intellectual partner and best friend.

Alice Lam