This selection of John Creedy's essays on labour economics sheds light on the areas of labour mobility, skilled labour markets and trade unions and wages.Among other issues, Professor Creedy discusses: the effects of migration, population ageing and retirement on the labour market the economic analysis of internal labour markets job mobility, earnings and responsibility in skilled labour markets with a particular emphasis on chemists and professional scientists the relationship between trade unions, tax levels and relative wages Labour Mobility, Earnings and Unemployment will be a valuable point of reference for students and scholars of labour economics.

Learning in labour markets is a key feature concerning how labour markets operate. This research reviews discusses classic and important recent contributions by leading scholars concerning how firms learn about worker abilities and other worker attributes. Topics covered include; theory of symmetric learning, evidence of symmetric learning and evidence from asymmetric learning. This research review will serve as a valuable resource for scholars, libraries, and graduate students.

Labour Relations in Transition provides a unique insight into the realities of Russian industrial enterprises in the transition period as it affects workers on the shop floor. Based on a unique collaborative programme of ethnographic and case study research, this volume includes original work by Western and Russian scholars focusing on the restructuring of wages, employment and industrial relations, and how workers have responded to these changes. As well as presenting pioneering analysis of trade unions and industrial conflict, Labour Relations in Transition addresses changing status hierarchies within the workforce, the position of women in production, the process of bankruptcy, and insider and outsider control. This is the third volume in the series Management and Industry in Russia and will be welcomed by sociologists and Russian specialists for addressing contemporary Labour-Management relations within the context of the changing significance of work and work relations in the lives of Russian workers.

This collection of books encompasses Scottish identity and cultural heritage, historical geography, health and social issues, industrial, economic, religious and political history. Originally published between 1935 and 1990, many of these titles were written at the height of discussions concerning the viability of an independent Scotland, an issue that has renewed relevance today. They include some of the notable volumes from the Routledge The Voice of Scotland series, as well as other books by leading authors. The empirical content of many of the books reissued here ensures they retain their relevance in informing studies of trends since the time they were first completed and will be of interest to anyone concerned with the ongoing debate about Scotland's role within the UK and Europe and the shape of her political future.

Labour migration is part of the process of human survival. In order to survive, individuals have to respond to changes in natural and institutional environments. The economic motivation and consequences of labour migration are the subject of this important new book.The Economics of Labour Migration places migration in a historical context, considers the economic impact of labour emigration and immigration, and examines the migration process in the European Union. The international group of contributors adopts an institutionalist perspective, allowing for the involvement of dynamic processes and human institutions. Their approach combines normative analysis with positive discussion of contemporary real world issues. Economists and policymakers will welcome the innovative approach of this volume which tackles a key economic issue which will have a profound influence on the development of the global economy.

Should trade unions passively respond to turbulent changes in industrial relations or can they innovate and set their own agenda? In the face of technological, economic, political and cultural change, trade unions across Europe face a genuine threat to their past achievements and their future capacity to act and shape industrial relations.In The Challenges to Trade Unions in Europe , a group of prominent authors examines the unions' strategic policies in seven European member states and at the European Union level, as well as their responses to the globalization of economic competition. Using theoretical and historical analysis as well as up-to-date empirical research, they examine the successes of trade unions and their capacity to innovate in order to remain strategic actors in the industrial relations arena. In particular, the authors examine trade union policies responding to topical issues such as training, sustainable growth, flexibility, decentralization, deregulation and neo-liberal state policies. The Challenges to Trade Unions in Europe explores responses to the main economic, managerial, political and socio-cultural features of the transformation process facing trade unions in Europe. It will be welcomed by researchers and students interested in industrial relations, personnel management, and the social and economic implications of European integration.

Capitalism With a Human Face is a carefully edited selection of Samuel Brittan's most important recent essays. It covers topics ranging from utilitarianism and the ethics of self-interest, to the principles of macroeconomic policy and how to price people into work without throwing them into poverty. The book will be controversial, for the individualistic ethic, which it is so fashionable to attack, is not merely defended but celebrated. This collection will be of special interest both to readers of Samuel Brittan's articles who would like a more extended treatment and those new to his work. A notable feature is a specially written introduction explaining how the author came to take up political economy and how he arrived at the positions elaborated in this book.

This book brings together two leading researchers in the field to provide a comprehensive overview of the shadow economy from a global perspective. Reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of different ways of measuring the informal sector, the authors evaluate its size and key determinants across the world. Williams and Schneider clearly establish the persistence and prevalence of the shadow economy, analysing the narrowness of existing policy approaches and explaining how these fail to address the key factors for its existence and may even exacerbate the problem. Proposing an alternative way forward, the authors argue that little headway will ever be made in reducing the shadow economy until there are changes not only to the character of formal institutions but also informal institutions (the values, beliefs and norms of citizens) through the introduction of macro-level structural changes. This timely, cutting-edge review of the global shadow economy and how it can be measured and tackled is an invaluable resource for postgraduate students, researchers and policy-makers, particularly those with a interest in tax evasion and informal labour.

This important new book is the first specific study on the classical theory of wages to appear for more than 50 years and as such fills an important gap in the literature. Antonella Stirati argues that the wage-fund theory played no part in the theory of wages expounded by Ricardo and his predecessors. Classical wage theory is shown to be analytically consistent but very different from contemporary theory, particularly as it did not envisage an inverse relationship between employment and the real wage level, and hence a spontaneous tendency to full employment of labour. The author bases her approach not only on a reinterpretation of Smith and Ricardo, but also on the writings of Turgot, Necker, Steuart, Hume, Cantillon and other pre-classical economists. Historians of economic thought as well as other economists will welcome Dr Stirati's careful analysis of classical writings on economics which includes simple but rigorous explanations of phenomena, central to current economic debate, such as the occurrence of persistent unemployment.

This important book goes beyond generalizations and takes a hard-headed look at the real strengths and weaknesses of Keynesian demand management and supply side economics.Keynesianism has failed to reconcile high levels of competitiveness with full employment. This was confirmed in the 1980s by the performance of the UK, the US and West Germany. Sweeping de-regulation has not proved to be an adequate solution. The book shows how effective supply conditions could supplement Keynesian demand management to achieve sustainable levels of high employment. The measures advocated include a system of industrial relations which allows high wages and job security in return for acceptance of a high pace of technological and organizational change; the promotion of skill development as well as intra-firm training programmes; the formation and encouragement of co-operation between different regions. It is argued that the supportive institutions, coupled with effective demand policies would succeed in marrying high employment with internationally competitive production.

How far can efficiency be pursued without sacrificing equity? Do fiscal changes designed to improve incentives necessarily lead to greater inequality of incomes? Does the profitability of 'big business' really reflect economies of scale and scope or is it also a reflection of market power? In addressing these and other key questions, a group of internationally acclaimed economists demonstrates why issues of concentration and inequality in economic life are moving to the top of the political agenda in the 1990s. Drawing upon the pioneering work of Peter Hart, this volume reflects the range of his influence from theoretical examinations of measures of industrial concentration and income inequality, to detailed empirical explorations of changes in concentration over time. The volume includes essays on, among other issues, the Hart measure of income mobility, income distribution in Eastern Europe, the UK state pension scheme, trends in the concentration of UK manufacturing in the 1980s, the EC Merger Control Regulation, corporate research and development strategies and corporate technological specialization in international industries. Industrial Concentration and Economic Inequality will be particularly relevant for government policy makers, social analysts and economists concerned with income distribution and industrial policy.

Cai Fang has led Chinese and international understanding of the links between Chinese population and economic development over the past two decades. He has defined relationships that have been centrally important to structural change in China, with immense implications for the rest of the world. This book brings together the wisdom from decades of research at the frontiers of knowledge. It is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand today's world economy.' - Ross Garnaut, University of Melbourne, Australia'Cai Fang's book, China's Economic Growth Prospects, is masterful. This is a book only he could write. Dr Cai takes decades of theory and observations on the world's experience in growth and development, explains it in fully digestible terms and then applies it in a nuanced and understandable way to the reality of what happened, and what is happening, in China. It is a book that is full of hope; it is a book fraught with warnings. It is the only book I know of that truly captures today's China.' - Scott Rozelle, Senior Fellow, Stanford University, US China has grown rapidly since the reform initiation of the 1970s. China's Economic Growth Prospects narrates the contribution of demographic transition to recent economic growth in China, and provides suggestions for ways in which it can sustain growth over the next few decades. The expert author provides reasons for the economic slowdown since the second decade of the twenty-first century; explores the challenges facing China's long-term sustainability of growth with the disappearance of demographic dividend; and proposes policy suggestions. He concludes that, in order to avoid the middle-income trap, economic growth in China must transform from an inputs-driven pattern, to a productivity-driven pattern. Academics, researchers and students of economics and business, particularly those specialising in China, will find this book to be a useful resource. Investment bankers, journalists, politicians and policy makers will find the discussions of past experience and the future potential of the Chinese economy to be of interest.

'All in all, the chapters of the volume provide insightful material 'about how different forms of precarious work are linked to speci?c institutional changes in the labour market and laws governing it but also how they are linked to each other'. . . Situated in the ?eld of Global Labour Studies, the volume goes beyond one of the most central weaknesses of the discipline: its optimistic bias. By systematically including cases in which trade failed or chose not to engage in the organization of precarious workers, the contributions pave the way to a deeper understanding of the challenges within this ?eld.' - British Journal of Industrial Relations With the renaissance of market politics on a global scale, precarious work has become pervasive. This edited collection explores the spread across a number of economic sectors and countries worldwide of work that is invariably insecure, dirty, low-paid, and often temporary and/or part-time. The first part of this cross-disciplinary book analyses the different forms of precarious work that have arisen over the past thirty years in both the Global North and South. These transformations are captured in ethnographically orientated chapters on sweatshops, day labour, homework, Chinese construction workers unpaid contract work, the introduction of insecure contracting into the Korean automotive industry, and the insecurity of Brazilian sugarcane cutters. The case studies all shed light upon how the nature of work and the workplace are changing under the pressures of neoliberal capitalism and what this means for workers. In the second part the editors and contributors then detail some of the ways in which precarious workers are seeking to improve their own situations through their efforts to counter the growth of precarity under neoliberal capitalism, efforts that involve collectively exploring forms of resistance to work restructuring and the failures of traditional trade unions to fully engage with precarious work's growth. Illustrating the impacts of the expansion of precarious work, this book will appeal to students, academics and those generally interested in the issues of the global economy, the reworking of labour markets, the impacts of neoliberal capitalism and ethnographies of the working poor in various parts of the world. Contributors include: L.L.M. Aguiar, M.J. Barreto, S. Chauvin, J. Cock, B. Garvey, M. Gillan, D. Hattatoglu, A. Herod, L. Huilin, K. Joynt, R. Lambert, P. Ngai, J. Tate, M. Thomas, E. Webster, A. Yun

The authors examine developments in labor standards in global supply chains over the past thirty years, analyzing factors that create challenges and opportunities for improving working conditions. They illustrate the complex dynamics within and among key groups, including brands, suppliers, governments, workers and consumers. Using extended examples from China, Honduras, Bangladesh and the United States, as well as new quantitative evidence, the authors analyze stakeholders and mechanisms that create or obstruct opportunities for improving labor rights. They evaluate key clusters of actors and their interests in order to comprehensively map the complex interactions and relationships that make up global supply chains. Original data and analyses, including four in-depth case studies, present a systematic evaluation of the points of leverage for changing labor standards in sectors including apparel, footwear, and electronics. This exciting new contribution to a burgeoning field of study will benefit scholars of labor rights and human rights, as well as students with an interest in labor and working conditions. It also presents critical information for political scientists, NGOs, and practitioners looking to effect change in working conditions and learn more about key players in the global economy.

Migration - both within and between countries - is increasingly one of the world's most important policy issues. The faster the Indian economy grows, the larger will be the geographical redistribution of the workforce from localities of low to those of high employment growth. Thus, territorial mobility is fundamental both to realizing the full economic potential of India's people and to allowing the population to escape from rural poverty. The book analyses the decisive factors in labour migration. Based upon a thorough and robust examination of migrants to three slum localities of Delhi stretching over four decades, the author examines why people migrate, the circumstances of their decision and their experience at their destination. He investigates the myths of urban policy - that "rural development" will reduce migration to the cities, that "growth poles" can be created to divert migrant flows, and that government has the power to influence significantly migration scales and directions while pursuing essentially unpredictable market-driven economic growth. Testing the essential theoretical basis for urban policy in India, the book is of interest to academics studying migration of labour and urbanization, and those interested in South Asian Studies.

Comprising five thematic sections, this volume provides a critical, international and interdisciplinary exploration of employment relations. It examines the major subjects and emerging areas within the field, including essays on institutional theory, voice, new actors, precarious work and employment. Led by a well-respected team of editors, the contributors examine current knowledge and debates within each topic, offering cutting-edge analysis and reflection. The Routledge Companion to Employment Relations is an extensive reference work that offers students and researchers an introduction to current scholarship in the longstanding discipline of employment relations. It will be an essential addition to library collections in business and management, law, economics, sociology and political economy.

Wages are the main determinant of living standards for the vast majority of workers and families around the world. This manual describes a new methodology to measure what constitutes a decent but basic standard of living and how much workers need to earn to afford this, making it possible for researchers to estimate comparable living wages around the world and determine gaps between living wages and prevailing wages. The new, practical methodology in this manual draws on 10 years of research and experience to clearly explain each step in the estimation process, based on standards for a low cost nutritious diet, healthy housing, and all other needs including decent health care and children's education. It stresses transparency and the need for time and place specific living wage estimates, and is replete with examples from country studies that have put it to the test. The authors describe how living wages can be estimated in locations and countries where secondary data are limited and make new, practical recommendations on how to value in kind benefits as partial payment of a living wage. An essential tool for Researchers and NGOs interested in wages, poverty, living standards, and corporate social responsibility issues, this manual will also serve company professionals responsible for corporate social responsibility and human resources. It is also an excellent tool for Bank governments and unions, and international organizations such as the United Nations, UNDP, ILO and World Bank involved in setting minimum wages, poverty alleviation programs and trade policies.

This issue brings together important research from Europe, Australia, North America, Latin America and Asia and considers - How can the global knowledge economy be conceptualised to enable us to understand the current transformations of work taking place globally? What is the relationship between global forces and differing national models of capitalism? How are global value chains being restructured? And are service industries now following the patterns set by manufacturing in the past? Are we seeing the birth of a network economy in which small firms can thrive, or a new phase of consolidation by global transnational corporations? And What are the impacts for regional development for working conditions and for workers' ability to organise?

Make human resources work for you! The third edition of Strategic Human Resources Management offers a truly innovative, integrative framework that examines the traditional functional human resource areas from a strategic perspective. The author undertakes a comprehensive discussion of current issues, practices, and theories while maintaining a coherent and consistent emphasis on strategy. Most human resource textbooks give you the theories without showing you the connections to real life. This textbook lets you see both sides of human resources: the theory and the application. Current examples and references integrated throughout the text and chapter introductions help put human resources into a real-world context.

"Made me look at the industrial revolution, invention, sleeping beauties, contexts and the forces that shape our societies differently."-David Byrne, New York Times Book Review How the history of technological revolutions can help us better understand economic and political polarization in the age of automation The Technology Trap is a sweeping account of the history of technological progress and how it has radically shifted the distribution of economic and political power among society's members. As Carl Benedikt Frey shows, the Industrial Revolution created unprecedented wealth and prosperity over the long run, but the immediate consequences of mechanization were devastating. Middle-income jobs withered, wages stagnated, the labor share of income fell, profits surged, and economic inequality skyrocketed. These trends broadly mirror those in our current age of automation. But, just as the Industrial Revolution eventually brought about extraordinary benefits for society, artificial intelligence systems have the potential to do the same. The Technology Trap demonstrates that in the midst of another technological revolution, the lessons of the past can help us to more effectively face the present.

During the past decade the issue of a general welfare double dividend (an improvement in environmental quality combined with a positive welfare effect) triggered by a tax shift from labour to energy resources has been extensively debated. In this book, Kurt Kratena studies the employment effects of revenue neutral tax shifts from labour to energy, and measures the impact on theoretical and empirical models of the European labour market. A common theoretical framework is devised to analyse the impact of environmental tax reform. Various 'labour market regimes' (competitive labour markets, union wage bargaining and efficiency wages) are derived and taken as the starting point for different specifications of the labour market. The theoretical outcomes of tax shifts in these different labour market regimes are then analysed and compared. The results reveal that whereas an econometric based multi-sectoral model yields significant double dividend effects, a general equilibrium model only finds employment double dividend effects. The book also highlights the potentially positive economic consequences of environmental tax reform such as a shift in demand from energy to non-energy goods. This book provides a concise appraisal of the general double dividend question combined with an innovative analysis of the employment double dividend effect. It utilises extensive empirical evidence and reveals the sensitivity of the various theoretical concepts surrounding the debate. This book will be of interest and relevance to academics in the fields of environmental economics, labour theory and fiscal studies.

The ABC of the projectariat contributes new thinking on and practical responses to the widespread problem of precarious labour in the field of contemporary art. It works as both a critical analysis and a practical handbook, speaking to and about the vast cohort of artistic freelancers worldwide. In an accessible ABC format, the book strikes a unique balance between the practical and the theoretical: the analysis is backed up by lived experience, the arguments are rooted in concrete examples and there are suggestions for constructive action. Roughly half of the entries expose the structural underpinnings of projects and circulation, isolating traits such as opportunism, neoliberalism, inequality, fear and cynicism at the root of the condition of the projectariat. This discussion is paired with a practical account of different modes of action, such as art strikes, productive withdrawals, political struggles and better social time machines. Just as proletarians had nothing to lose but their chains, the projectarians have nothing to miss but their deadlines. -- .

The sectoral composition of economies is fundamental to the understanding of growth, unemployment and the relative performance of nations. Henri de Groot models the relationship between these four factors from a single theoretical perspective in order to determine the foundations of the wealth of nations. Special issues that are addressed include: * the macroeconomic consequences of outsourcing and downsizing * unemployment and catching-up * the relationship between growth and unemployment in a dual labour market * the relative stagnancy of Europe versus the USA in terms of productivity levels and unemployment * transitional dynamics in two-sector endogenous growth models * the causes of deindustrialization * the role of trade unions and efficiency-wage considerations Growth, Unemployment and Deindustrialization will be of paramount interest to scholars of endogenous growth theory, economic growth and unemployment, labour market economics and industrial organization.