This collection explores key themes in the contemporary critique of political economy, in honour of the work and practice of Silvia Federici and George Caffentzis - two of the most significant contemporary theorists of capitalism and anti-capitalism, whose contributions span half a century of struggle, crisis and debate. Drawing together a collection of essays that assess Federici and Caffentzis's contributions, offering critical and comradely reflections and commentary that build on their scholarship, this volume acts as a guide to their work, while also taking us beyond it. The book is organised around five key themes: revolutionary histories, reproduction, money and value, commons, and struggles. Ultimately, the book shines light on the continuing relevance of Caffentzis and Federici's work in the twenty-first century for understanding anti-capitalism, 'primitive accumulation' and the commons, feminism, reproductive labour and Marx's value theory.

Measures of Active Labor Market Policy - such as training, wage subsidies, public employment measures, and job search assistance - are widely used in European countries to combat unemployment. Little, however, is known about what each country can learn from experiences in other countries. This study provides novel insight on this important policy issue by discussing the role of the European Commission's Employment Strategy, reviewing the experiences made in European states, and giving the first ever quantitative assessment of the existing cross-country evidence, answering the question "what labor market program works for what target group under what (economic and institutional) circumstances?." Using an innovative meta-analytical approach, the authors find that rather than contextual factors such as labor market institutions or the business cycle, it is almost exclusively the program type that matters for program effectiveness: While direct employment programs in the public sector appear detrimental, wage subsidies and "Services and Sanctions" can be effective in increasing participants' employment probability.

This volume, originally published in 1966, contains essays from the 1930s and is valuable not only in the context of the history of thought. It provides an excellent introduction to the general theory of employment, interest and money and reflect the most essential features of Kalecki's theory of the business cycle.

Data from the United States Census of Population indicate that there has been a dramatic increase in the labor force participation of married women over the twentieth century. This book, first published in 1998, takes issue with this well-known stylized fact. Whereas the labor force literature comments extensively on men's transition from home production to market work, the effect on women's employment has gone more or less unnoticed. The objective of this book is to uncover the work usually omitted from descriptions of wage work and housework - that is, work done in the household for market use - and to examine the various implications of this omission for analysing married women's participation in GNP-producing work over the course of the past century.

The idea of comparing rewards with others has a long and persistent presence in the social sciences, and can be found in many psychological, social and managerial theories. In economics, this idea can be traced back through the works of a substantial number of eminent thinkers, from Genovesi and Hume, to Smith, Ricardo, Marx, and Mill, through to Veblen, Pigou, and Keynes. In the last two decades the notion of social comparisons has started to appear more frequently in economic literature, especially in the subfield of happiness research. There are also signs that the notion has resurfaced in some strands of literature such as positional concerns, social identity models and social capital theory. Comparisons in Economic Thought offers a uniquely comprehensive account of how social comparisons have featured in the history of economic thought. This book provides an assessment as to why social comparisons have been dismissed by mainstream economists and considers their current and future usefulness. This volume is suitable for those who are interested and study history of economic thought, economic methodology and History of Consumer Theory, as well as Rational Choice Theory.

Occupational sex segregation is one of the most universal and salient characteristics of labor markets. It indicates the different probabilities of members of both genders to take up particular occupations, and traditionally places women at a great disadvantage. This book, first published in 1992, focuses on a comparative analysis of sex-segregated occupational categories and attempts to systematically examine their implications. Since very little is known about Israeli working women, and given the cultural differences between Israel and other, more studied industrialised nations, this book focuses on the Israeli labor market. Through the utilization of several theoretical approaches, combining economic, sociological, and social-psychological perspectives, the book analyses empirical findings concerning labor market perceptions, attitudes and behaviors.

In this book, first published in 1971, the authors show from first-hand studies of family and working life (and with evidence from many countries, including the socialist societies of Eastern Europe) the nature of the discrimination facing women in the professions - and how various family and employment patterns might contribute to solving it. Their point is not that some new stereotype should be substituted for traditional views of the role of husbands and wives: different patterns fit different situations.

This book addresses the instabilities that growing industries face in developing countries, especially Nepal. Also, what happens when industries die out? It questions the rickety ride to industrialization and development - if at all it is avoidable? The author delves deep into its impact on human lives - what happens to those hundreds of thousands of people whose livelihoods are dependent on these industries? How do they inculcate new skillsets to suit changing requirements? What future awaits those who leave the country in search of a better tomorrow? The author challenges the existing perspective that the Maoist movement was essentially a rural, guerrilla warfare. She explains how the Maoist-led labour uprising in Nepal following the death of the garment industry was embedded in a broader political upheaval that was essentially urban in nature and was more about national politics than everyday politics in the margins.

There's nothing more fundamental to having a decent life in America than having a job. Unemployment is the public's top concern in polls, and potentially the most damaging part of the Great Recession. Yet the political discussion about jobs it is a morass of posturing, blame and ideology. "Where Did the Jobs Go-and How Can We Get Them Back?" is a basic guide to the jobs issue written specifically for readers who aren't economists, financiers, business school professors, or policy wonks working for think tanks. It's designed to help readers sift through the political rhetoric for context and clarification - and shares some ideas that aren't being raised by politicians, but which could be crucial to turning the U.S. jobs picture around. But while the topic is serious, solving it doesn't have to be. Featuring chapters entitled Has America Lost Its Mojo? and Just the Facts, Ma'am, this book will be anything but dry. By applying the same winning approach they used to irreverently explain the federal budget crisis in Where Does the Money Go?, Bittle and Johnson will use pop culture to help define the fundamental concepts that shape the varying economic and jobs proposals. They cover proposals from the political left, right, and center-balancing the budget, cutting taxes, cutting bureaucracy, reviving manufacturing, improving education, starting a major national infrastructure project, closing the gap between rich and poor - and try to help readers understand risks, costs, and trade-offs associated with each of them as ways to create jobs. They also offer an in-depth look at the truths and lies frequently thrown around about jobs and technology, globalization, immigration, Baby Boomers, and more.

The emergence of a 'labour market' in industrial societies implies not just greater competition and increased mobility of economic resources, but also the specific form of the work relationship which is described by the idea of wage labour and its legal expression, the contract of employment. This book examines the evolution of the contract of employment in Britain through a close investigation of changes in its juridical form during and since the industrial revolution. The initial conditions of industrialization and the subsequent growth of a particular type of welfare state are shown to have decisively shaped the evolutionary path of British labour and social security law. In particular, the authors argue that nature of the legal transition which accompanied industrialization in Britain cannot be adequately captured by the conventional idea of a movement from status to contract. What emerged from the industrial revolution was not a general model of the contract of employment, but rather a hierarchical conception of service, which originated in the Master and Servant Acts and was slowly assimilated into the common law. It was only as a result of the growing influence of collective bargaining and social legislation, and with the spread of large-scale enterprises and of bureaucratic forms of organization, that the modern term 'employee' began to be applied to all wage and salary earners. The concept of the contract of employment which is familiar to modern labour lawyers is thus a much more recent phenomenon than has been widely supposed. This has important implications for conceptualizations of the modern labour market, and for the way in which current proposals to move 'beyond' the employment model, in the face of intensifying technological and institutional change, should be addressed.

This book examines the structural changes in the labour market in North-East India. Going beyond the conventional study of tea and agricultural sectors, it focuses on the nature, pattern and structure of work and employment in the region as well as documents emerging shifts in the labour force towards farm to non-farm dynamics. The chapters explore historical developments in employment patterns, labour market policies, issues of gender and social-religious dimensions, as well as point to growing forms of casual, informal and contractual labour across sectors. Through large-scale data and detailed case studies on unfree labour in plantations and those employed in crafts, handloom and the manufacturing industry, the book provides insights into labour and employment in the region. It also delves into the temporal and spatial dimensions of non-farm employment and its relationship with rural income distribution and labour mobility. By bringing interdisciplinary perspectives from scholars working on North-East India, this work fills a major gap in the political economy of the labour market in the region. The volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of development studies, North-East India studies, labour studies, economics, sociology and political science as well to those involved with governance and policymaking.

This book examines essential issues and perspectives on rural labour, helping readers understand the changes that are currently taking place in the labour markets, especially with regard to migrants from rural to urban areas, their socio-economic conditions, factors contributing to such mobility and associated problems. Further, it addresses the question of why the socio-economic conditions of rural labour have not experienced measurable improvements. Presenting a collection of painstakingly researched essays that focus on both India and China, the book addresses these challenges with an explicit focus on safeguarding the interests of rural labour under the neoliberal dispensation. The research is based on primary survey data and analytical issues from selected Asian economies, especially from India. On the basis of the findings discussed, it subsequently suggests ways forward so as to improve the wellbeing of migrant households and put an end to distress migration. Lastly, the book convincingly argues that improving labour market outcomes, and more specifically, generating employment and providing alternative livelihood avenues, represents the most pressing challenge in rural areas.

There are 60 million health care workers globally and most of this workforce consists of nurses, as they are key providers of primary health care. Historically, the global nurse occupation has been predominately female and segregated along gendered, racialised and classed hierarchies. In the last decade, new actors have emerged in the management of health care human resources, specifically from the corporate sector, which has created new interactions, networks, and organisational practices. This book urgently calls for the reconceptualisation in the theoretical framing of the globalised nurse occupation from International Human Resource Management (IHRM) to Transnational Human Resource Management (THRM). Specifically, the book draws on critical human resource management literature and transnational feminist theories to frame the strategies and practices used to manage nurses across geographical sites of knowledge production and power, which centralise on how and by whom nurses are managed. In its current managerial form, the author argues that the nurses are constructed and produced as resources to be packaged for clients in public and private organisations.

This book provides the first systematic account of the premium costs that migrants pay to live and work abroad. Reducing the costs of international labour migration, specifically worker-paid costs for low-skilled employment, has become an important item on the global agenda over the last years and is particularly pertinent for the UN's Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Recruitment costs alone amount in most migration corridors to anywhere between one and ten months of foreign earnings and many migrants may well lose between one and two years of foreign earnings, if all costs are considered. This book is intended as a primer for evidence-based policy for reducing the costs of international labour mobility. The contributors include academics from law, economics and politics, but also authors from international organizations, non-governmental organizations, as well as the voices of migrants. The hope of the editors is that this small collection sets the basis for evidence-based policies that seek to reduce the costs of international migration. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of migration, globalization, law, sociology and international relations, as well as practitioners and policy makers.

Contemporary mainstream economists see social wealth as the sum of individual incomes, but for three centuries many economists saw wealth as consisting of the public and private resources of a nation. This led them to explore the idea of unproductive labour, which provides a nation with an individual income, but does not contribute to an increase in social wealth or help to foster development. This book analyses the evolution of ideas surrounding unproductive labour, offering an unprecedented history that guides readers from the work of Petty through to the present economic crisis. This volume explores the work of several key scholars, including Smith, Petty, Marx, Ricardo, Mill, Say and Schumpeter. This book is suitable for scholars and researchers with an interest in the history of economic thought, labour economics and economic philosophy. Winner of the 2019 Ernest Lluch Prize from the Spanish Association of Economic History

This volume provides a rigorous examination of key issues relating to employment in small businesses. These include an anlysis of the true extent of job crreation provided by small firms, the rleative quality of jobs in small firms, the growth of self-employment during the 1980s and the way in which the small firm interacts with its local labour markets. These issues are examined in an international context, wth comparative examples from the USA, the UK and Europe.

When originally published in 1986, this book was one of the first to deal solely with the urban and regional incidence and development implications of new firm formation in particular EU countries. It reviews the extent of and reasons for geographical variation in numbers of new firms, examines the nature of such firms and assesses the regional impact and policy implications in various EC countries.

Focussing on the relatively few small firms which grew rapidly, this book, originally published in 1993 uses face-to-face interviews as well as published records to identify and analyse the managerial factors most closely associated with successful small firms. The volume concentrates on the following key managerial issues: In what respects do the managerial backgrounds and aspirations of the founders of fast-growth small firms differ from those of non-fast-growth small firms? How is the process of growth managed? What incentives, remuneration packages and communication systems are instituted? How do these characteristics and experiences differ in fast-growth small firms from both the traditional small firm and large-firm sector? To what extent is it possible to explain the relative economic performance of small firms in terms of differences in their ownership, organizational and management structures.

An expert on innovation and work argues that many highly capable women are not being recognised, and that this harms businesses, societies, and individuals alike. Whereas The Peter Principle, a four-million-copy bestseller from the 1960s, argued that most (male) workers will inevitably be promoted to one level beyond their competence, Tom Schuller shows how women today face the opposite scenario: their skills are being wasted as they work below their competence levels. Schuller blends interviews and case studies with examples drawn from literature and popular culture to examine how attitudes have changed, from the advent of higher education for women in the 19th century to female dominance at all academic levels today. He also reveals how this has translated - or failed to translate - into the lived experiences and careers of professional women, whether they are nursery workers, council employees, journalists, or oil company executives. Engrossing and full of everyday insights into how gender impacts on working life, The Paula Principle is a well-reasoned analysis of the obstacles that many women face, and a call for us to challenge them on a personal, organisational, and societal level. PRAISE FOR TOM SCHULLER '[Schuller's] passion for social justice is stamped on every page of a study whose clarity and well researched insights are captivating.' The Times Higher Education 'The path to equality thus far has involved women converging on traditionally male employment patterns, Schuller argues: now is the time for men to move towards traditionally female ones - to improve equality and work-life balance, and to make better use of our resources.' Prospect

This provocative book makes a compelling case for reducing the number of workdays in a week to four. Globalization has brought with it fiercer competition and greater worker mobility, and as organizations compete for top talent, they are becoming more open to unconventional worker arrangements, such as remote working and flextime. International business expert, Robert Grosse, draws on scholarly research to construct an appealing argument for why the four-day workweek benefits both the organization and the employee. Research has demonstrated that longer work hours harm the individual and don't amount to a more effective organization, which begs the question: then why do it? The book goes beyond merely arguing that a reduced workweek is a good idea. It delves into why, explores the means for achieving it, and scrutinizes the barriers to getting there. This is a book for forward-thinking executives, leaders, and academics who understand that work-life balance is the secret sauce not only for organizational success, but also for greater productivity and satisfaction in their careers and those of the people they manage.

Models for Dynamic Microeconomics provides the advanced student with key methodological tools for the dynamic analysis of a core selection of macroeconomic phenomena, including consumption and investment choices, employment and unemployment outcomes, and economic growth.
The technical treatment of these tools will enable the student to handle current journal literature, while not assuming any particular familiarity with advanced analytical tools or mathematical notions. As these tools are introduced, they are related to particular applications to illustrate their use.
Chapters are linked by various formal and substantive threads. Discrete-time optimization under uncertainty, introduced in Chapter 1, is motivated and discussed by applications to consumption theory, with particular attention to empirical implementation. Chapter 2 focuses on continuous-time optimization techniques, and discusses the relevant insights in the context of partial-equilibrium investment models. Chapter 3 revisits many of the previous chapters' formal derivations with applications to dynamic labour demand, in comparison to optimal investment models, and characterizes labor market equilibrium when not only individual firms' labor demand, but also individual labor supply by workers, is subject to adjustment costs. Chapter 4 proposes broader applications of methods introduced in the previous chapters and studies continuous-time equilibrium dynamics of representative agent economies, featuring both consumption and investment choices, with applications to long-run growth frameworks of analysis. Chapter 5 illustrates the role of decentralized trading in determining aggregate equilibria, and characterizes aggregate labor market dynamics in the presence of frictional unemployment. Chapters 4 and 5 pay particular attention to strategic interactions and externalities: even when each agent correctly solves his or her individual dynamic problem, modern microfounded macroeconomic models recognize that macroeconomic equilibrium need not have unambiguously desirable properties.
By bridging the gap between undergraduate economics and modern microfounded macroeconomic research, this book will be of interest to graduate students in economics, and as a technical reference for economic researchers.

The essays in this book, originally published in 1984, examine many problems within the structure of industry including wage policies, financial incentives and other economic policies. The book discusses the problems from two standpoints: that of the economist who is concerned with labour as a resource and the psychologist concerned with the behavioural activity of the labour force. This inter-disciplinary approach ensures the relevance of the essays to social scientists, managers and policy-makers.

Russia has a very large pool of economic migrants, up to 25% of the workforce according to some estimates. Although many migrants, many from former Soviet countries which are now independent, entered Russia legally, they frequently face bureaucratic obstacles to legal employment and Russian citizenship, factors which have led to a very large "shadow economy". This book presents a comprehensive examination of migrant labour in Russia. It describes the nature of migrant labour, explores the shadow economy and its unfortunate consequences, and discusses the rise of popular sentiment against migrants and the likely impact. The book also sets the Russian experiences of migrant labour in context, comparing the situation in Russia with that in other countries with significant migrant labour workforces.

Cooperatives the world over are successfully developing alternative models of decision-making, employment and operation without the existence of managers, executives and hierarchies. Through case studies spanning the US, Latin America and Europe, including valuable new work on the previously neglected cooperative movement in Cuba, Peter Ranis explores how cooperatives have evolved in response to the economic crisis. Going further yet, Ranis makes the novel argument that the constitutionally enshrined principle of 'eminent domain' can in fact be harnessed to create and defend worker cooperatives. Combining the work of key radical theorists, including Marx, Gramsci and Luxemburg, with that of contemporary political economists, such as Block, Piketty and Stiglitz, Cooperatives Confront Capitalism provides what is perhaps the most far-reaching analysis yet of the ideas, achievements and wider historical context of the cooperative movement.

Basic income is an innovative, powerful egalitarian response to widening global inequalities and poverty experiences in society, one that runs counter to the neoliberal transformations of modern welfare states, social security, and labor market programs. This book is the first collective volume of its kind to ask whether a basic income offers a viable solution to the income support systems in Australia and New Zealand. Though often neglected in discussions of basic income, both countries are advanced liberal democracies dominated by neoliberal transformations of the welfare state, and therefore have great potential to advance debates on the topic. The contributors' essays and case studies explore the historical basis on which a basic income program might stand in these two countries, the ideological nuances and complexities of implementing such a policy, and ideas for future development that might allow the program to be put into practice regionally and applied internationally.