This book addresses one of the most important research activities in empirical macroeconomics. It provides a course of advanced but intuitive methods and tools enabling the spatial and temporal disaggregation of basic macroeconomic variables and the assessment of the statistical uncertainty of the outcomes of disaggregation. The empirical analysis focuses mainly on GDP and its growth in the context of Poland. However, all of the methods discussed can be easily applied to other countries. The approach used in the book views spatial and temporal disaggregation as a special case of the estimation of missing observations (a topic on missing data analysis). The book presents an econometric course of models of Seemingly Unrelated Regression Equations (SURE). The main advantage of using the SURE specification is to tackle the presented research problem so that it allows for the heterogeneity of the parameters describing relations between macroeconomic indicators. The book contains model specification, as well as descriptions of stochastic assumptions and resulting procedures of estimation and testing. The method also addresses uncertainty in the estimates produced. All of the necessary tests and assumptions are presented in detail. The results are designed to serve as a source of invaluable information making regional analyses more convenient and - more importantly - comparable. It will create a solid basis for making conclusions and recommendations concerning regional economic policy in Poland, particularly regarding the assessment of the economic situation. This is essential reading for academics, researchers, and economists with regional analysis as their field of expertise, as well as central bankers and policymakers.

This book explains the role of formal labour market institutions in keeping the labour utilisation in Central and Eastern Europe above the level characteristic for Western European states. It provides an innovative and enriching take on labour utilisation at large and how various formal labour market institutions can affect the ongoing trend in labour utilisation in a way that is not covered by the extant literature. The impact of labour market institutions on labour market outcomes is analysed throughout 12 chapters, both from a cross-country perspective and in detailed case-studies, by 21 labour market experts from various CEE countries. Most chapters are based on empirical methods yet are presented in an easy-to-follow way in order to make the book also accessible for a non-scientific audience. The volume explores three key questions: How can labour utilisation be increased by labour market institutions? Which CEE countries managed to create a labour market institutional framework beneficial for labour utilisation? How should the labour market institutions in CEE countries be reformed in order to increase labour utilisation? The book argues that the legacy of transition reforms and a centrally planned past is still relevant in explaining common patterns among CEE countries and concludes that increasing the stock of skills accumulated by the employed and improving utilisation of these skills seems to be the first-best solution to increase labour utilisation. The book will be of interest to post-graduate researchers and academics in the fields of labour economics, regional economics, and macroeconomics as well as scholars interested in adopting an institutional analysis approach. Additionally, due to the broader policy implications of the topic, the book will appeal to policymakers and experts interested in labour economics.

This book takes a closer look at the societal functions of sports clubs by using the broad range of empirical data of a comparative study. There is a limited amount of up-to-date knowledge on the functions of sports clubs and their potential to promote public health, social cohesion and democratic participation through volunteering and thus contribute to public welfare in European societies. Most of the existing studies are country-specific and therefore do not allow for making comparisons from a cross-national perspective. In light of this, the project 'Social Inclusion and Volunteering in Sports Clubs in Europe' (SIVSCE) collected, analysed and discussed comparable data and knowledge across ten European countries and disseminated this knowledge to politicians, sports professionals and sports volunteers in Europe. The SIVSCE project contains comparative data of clubs as well as of members in selected sports clubs. In each country chapter, the comparative data from the SIVSCE project is put together in a coherent way. Particularly, the data of the member survey give in-depth information about the fulfillment of the different functions of sports clubs (e.g. extension of democratic participation, social integration). Providing in-depth data related to policy issues, structure and management of clubs and individual member surveys, this book will be useful for students particularly those in sports management programmes as well as researchers and practitioners in social science and economics.

The Oxford Handbook of Managerial Economics, the first of its kind, aims to provide researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and teachers with summaries of the state of the art in the field of managerial economics. Edited by the coauthors of two managerial economics textbooks, comprising 25 chapters contributed by leading scholars and business consultants from around the globe, and drawing on the literature of, among others, economics, finance, industrial organization, marketing, behavioral psychology, game theory and auction theory, the Handbook summarizes cutting-edge approaches to the analysis of the decision-making challenges faced by the managers of for-profit and nonprofit enterprises. The problems addressed run the gamut from cost estimation, product development and promotion, optimal pricing strategies for network industries and make-or-buy decisions, to organizational design, performance pay, corporate governance, strategies for multinational corporations and the social responsibilities of business. Each of the managerial economics experts commissioned for the volume also identify the problems that are yet to be solved and thus point the way toward topics for future research. Managerial economics has moved far beyond simply applying neoclassical microeconomic theory to the actual world of practical business decision-making. By illustrating how disciplines other than economics can fruitfully be brought to bear in helping to analyze and to understand the incentives and constraints under which business managers operate, the Handbook fills in the gaps between theory and practice. Sometimes technical, but always reader-friendly, no one with an interest in the modern world of business or public policies toward it can afford to ignore the analyses and the important lessons taught by the contributors to it.

Clear and effective instruction on MADM methods for students, researchers, and practitioners. A Handbook on Multi-Attribute Decision-Making Methods describes multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) methods and provides step-by-step guidelines for applying them. The authors describe the most important MADM methods and provide an assessment of their performance in solving problems across disciplines. After offering an overview of decision-making and its fundamental concepts, this book covers 20 leading MADM methods and contains an appendix on weight assignment methods. Chapters are arranged with optimal learning in mind, so you can easily engage with the content found in each chapter. Dedicated readers may go through the entire book to gain a deep understanding of MADM methods and their theoretical foundation, and others may choose to review only specific chapters. Each standalone chapter contains a brief description of prerequisite materials, methods, and mathematical concepts needed to cover its content, so you will not face any difficulty understanding single chapters. Each chapter: Describes, step-by-step, a specific MADM method, or in some cases a family of methods Contains a thorough literature review for each MADM method, supported with numerous examples of the method's implementation in various fields Provides a detailed yet concise description of each method's theoretical foundation Maps each method's philosophical basis to its corresponding mathematical framework Demonstrates how to implement each MADM method to real-world problems in a variety of disciplines In MADM methods, stakeholders' objectives are expressible through a set of often conflicting criteria, making this family of decision-making approaches relevant to a wide range of situations. A Handbook on Multi-Attribute Decision-Making Methods compiles and explains the most important methodologies in a clear and systematic manner, perfect for students and professionals whose work involves operations research and decision making.

Modern attitudes to work are closely interwoven with the ways in which people think about the temporal organization of their lives. In this important book, the authors examine the relations between work and time and explore the possibilities of developing new and more flexible working patterns.

Drawing on interviews with employees who have chosen to reduce their working hours from 40 to between 20 and 30 per week, the authors identify two categories of workers: first, the "time conformists" who see nothing unusual in their shorter working time and tend to fill their extra free time with familiar activities; and second, the "time pioneers." "Time pioneers" are people who strive to realize their ideas of time both at work and in their everyday private lives and succeed in introducing more flexibility into their working time.

The authors argue that "time pioneers" display as much - if not more - motivation, willingness and commitment to their work than "time conformists." But in order to avoid becoming appropriated by the rigid working hours imposed by some employers - who may not be easily persuaded to depart from the prevailing cultural paradigm of the employment society - they develop their own ideas of how to organize their work.

"Time Pioneers "is a significant and topical contribution to debates about the role of work in modern society.

As the first and largest guestworker program, the U.S.-Mexico Bracero Program (1942-1964) codified the unequal relations of labor migration between the two nations. This book interrogates the articulations of race and class in the making of the Bracero Program by introducing new syntheses of sociological theories and methods to center the experiences and recollections of former Braceros and their families.

Respectable Professionals contains the contributions of fifteen experts about the birth of new professions and the modernization of working practices in old trades in nineteenth-century Spain. The authors consider that professionalism and respectability were the most relevant elements which structured the bourgeois society in the nineteenth century. The economic changes resulting from the abolition of guilds, the extension of the competences of the State and the liberalization of the economy contributed greatly to the renewal of the labour market. This process took place while some other transformations gave rise to the bourgeois society, such as the urbanization, the updating of the educational system or the organization of professional networks and associations. Starting from the sociology of professions, the book reflects on the historical and sociocultural elements that influenced the development of professional society through different case studies that allow us to compare with other European countries. Nowadays we are living through similar changes in the labour market that should lead us to look back and learn from the challenges faced by professionals in the past.

Assessing the effectiveness of the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC), this book examines the operation of the core institutions (the Secretariat and National Administrative Offices) over the past seven years. It discusses the main functions of these institutions in hearing public submissions on violations of labour laws and in conducting research and cooperative activities. Based on interview research, the analysis reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the accord to assess its contribution to a common labour relations regime in North America and its impact in creating new transnational communities of actors in government and civil society in the three countries. The NAALC is also compared with the social dimension of the European Union system, and a final assessment is made as to whether the NAALC institutions live up to the promises of their founders and whether these can be a model for labour relations in any future Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement.

The shift toward automation is about to create a tsunami of unemployment. Not in the distant future--now. One recent estimate predicts 13 million American workers will lose their jobs within the next seven years-jobs that won't be replaced. In a future marked by restlessness and chronic unemployment, what will happen to American society? In The War on Normal People, Andrew Yang paints a dire portrait of the American economy. Rapidly advancing technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and automation software are making millions of Americans' livelihoods irrelevant. The consequences are these trends are already being felt across our communities in the form of political unrest, drug use, and other social ills. The future looks dire-but is it unavoidable? In The War on Normal People, Yang imagines a different future -- one in which having a job is distinct from the capacity to prosper and seek fulfillment. At this vision's core is Universal Basic Income, the concept of providing all citizens with a guaranteed income-and one that is rapidly gaining popularity among forward-thinking politicians and economists. Yang proposes that UBI is an essential step toward a new, more durable kind of economy, one he calls "human capitalism."

Marx expected the working class to create 'a movement of immense majority, in the interests of immense majority'. However, there is not and never has been such a movement. At least a part of the reason is that the traditional Marxist picture of a two-class polarisation bears little resemblance to the diverse and complex society of today's Western world. In this book, Michal Polak attempts to move beyond the austerity of the two-class model to come closer to the empirical realities. In the process, the author re-examines the very foundations of the Marxist theory, demonstrating how an important critique of the theory can in fact be fruitfully interpreted as a generalisation of it. While remaining true to the Marxian spirit, he comes up with original and innovative extensions of the traditional concepts, which finally allow for the explanation of the diverse class map of the advance capitalist societies.

Debate surrounding the employability of graduates has been around for many decades, and interest in this area has grown particularly since the start of this century. Tackling this relevant area of scholarship, this book uses an innovative approach to analyse the relationship between the university and the labour market from different perspectives, taking into account both sociological and economic theories. Key areas explored include work transition, graduate employability, and the effects of public interventions/initiatives which are aimed at matching the competences of graduates to labour market needs. The chapters summarise several years of author original research, including study on the employability of graduates in Poland more specifically, and the effects of their public interventions to increase graduate employment and facilitate entry into the workforce (e.g. Commissioned Fields of Study, Competences Development Programme). More generally, university - labour market relations are analysed from three perspectives: micro (understood as individual characteristics shaping educational and occupational choices and decisions), and meso and macro (e.g. features of the education system and such as the strength of the signal sent by HE diplomas; the macroeconomic situation and the condition of the labour market and the state of debate on general and employability competences and its implications). The conclusions made are pertinent given ongoing debates around graduate mismatch in the labour market, as well as the questioning of tuition fees and the role of the university in society more broadly. The interdisciplinary nature of this book makes it of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the areas of sociology, economy, public policy, and also to practitioners designing educational interventions themselves.

The labor market in Islam is governed by the Islamic laws of fairness, justice, and reward that is equivalent to the job done. Most of the literature in the field discusses the normative aspect of the labor market, whereas few attempts can be seen to address more positive aspects. There is a need for new theoretical and empirical models for the Islamic labor market, which should differ from established approaches. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the nature, scope, and dimensions of the labor market in an Islamic context, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. It presents and discusses labor economics and then compares the similarities and differences between conventional and Islamic views of the labor market, explaining where they meet, and critically justifying why they differ, under the umbrella of Shari'ah. The book raises pertinent issues, which it analyzes from both standpoints and widens the discourse to include norms, morality, and related institutions such as social security and welfare. A unique feature of the book is that it examines labor economics practices among a specific group of countries, and studies the labor conditions within these countries, where the majority of the population follow the teachings of Islam in their daily lives. The book proposes practical strategies for the development of new models for the Islamic labor market which are compatible with the modern world. The book will enable academics and practitioners of Islamic economics to make economic sense of Shari'ah compliance and human resource development.

The title investigates rural labor mobility in China since 2003, an important phenomenon in the process of Chinese economic transition, influential in economic growth at the macro level and individual wellbeing at the micro level. Based on empirical analysis, the study identifies and evaluates the characteristics, driving forces and impact of the migration and mobility of the rural labor force. The following factors are considered to impact rural workers' mobility decisions and are thoroughly discussed in each chapter: (1) convergence in the level of regional income, (2) industrial structure and the age structure of the workforce, (3) the household registration system, (4) the income gap, (5) the issue of children that are left behind, (6) the health status of rural migrant workers and (7) their social networks. Drawing on new research methods, the final chapter reassesses the impact of rural parents' migration to the city and the overall wellbeing of their children left behind at home, challenging the well-accepted view that there is a negative correlation between the two. The book will appeal to scholars and students interested in labor economics, Chinese economy, sociology, demography, migrant population and especially labor mobility in China.

In its pursuit of economic integration, economic and monetary union (EMU) had become a primary commitment for the European Community. Originally published in 1974, this study sets out to examine the meaning of economic union and its relationship with monetary union. The contributors look at the problems and costs for attaining economic union for the member states of the EEC at the time. Steven Robson writes on economic management. Paul Woolley examines the integration of capital markets. Santosh Mukherjee looks at the implications of labour market policy. Geoffrey Denton and Adam Ridley consider the impact of economic and monetary union on regional problems. Alan Prest is concerned with tax harmonisation specifically Value Added Tax and Corporation Tax and Douglas Dosser discusses the development of a European Community budget. Though the long-term benefits of EMU were clear, in the short term it would impose strains and pressures on national economies and particular sectors within them. This study goes a long way to clarifying where these difficulties would arise and suggests some ways of coping with them.

This volume challenges the concept of the 'new African middle class' with new theoretical and empirical insights into the changing lives in Sub-Saharan Africa. Diverse middle classes are on the rise, but models of class based on experiences from other regions of the world cannot be easily transferred to the African continent. Empirical contributions, drawn from a diverse range of contexts, address both African histories of class formation and the political roles of the continent's middle classes, and also examine the important interdependencies that cut across inter-generational, urban-rural and class divides. This thought-provoking book argues emphatically for a revision of common notions of the 'middle class', and for the inclusion of insights 'from the South' into the global debate on class. Middle Classes in Africa will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, as well as NGOs and policy makers with an interest in African societies.

First Published in 1960, Economic and Financial Aspects of Social Security presents an important intervention by Professor J. Henry Richardson, an experienced authority on social security. Specially valuable is the chapter which considers what proportion of national income can be afforded for social security and also that on the alternatives of financing by accumulating large funds or by 'pay-as-you-go' methods. The author directs particular attention to age and retirement and urges that both social security systems and industrial organization should be so devised as to give encouragement and facilities for older people to continue working as long as they are fit. He also discusses remedies for poverty arising from sickness and large families with low incomes. The value of social security as a factor in economic security and in the redistribution of income, safeguards against inflation, and the problem of saving today for consumption in the future are also examined. This book is an essential read for scholars and researchers of political economy, labour economics and economics in general

This book analyses novel and important issues relating to the emergence of new forms of work resulting from the introduction of disruptive technologies in the enterprises and the labour market, especially platform work. The first part of the book examines the platform economy and labour market, to address the more general challenges that the recent labour platforms pose for employment and the labour market, while the second part of the book considers the implications of the rise of different ways of work in the enterprises due to the incorporation of technology in a global context. Providing a rich analysis and evaluation of the numerous theoretical and practical regulatory problems arising from constantly developing technology, this book makes important and informed suggestions on how to solve the numerous problems which have arisen. The collection of chapters in this volume are varied and are dealt with from different disciplinary angles, and from a diverse range of countries and legal systems to create an interesting and unique global picture on the topics studied therein. With an international perspective, the book will be of interest to students and scholars of economy and technology law.

This book delivers a fresh and fascinating perspective on the issue of the minimum wage. While most discussions of the minimum wage place it at the center of a debate between those who oppose such a policy and argue it leads to greater unemployment, and those who favor it and argue it improves the economic well-being of low-income workers, Levin-Waldman makes the case for the minimum wage as a way to improve the well-being of middle-income workers, strengthen the US economy, reduce income inequality, and enhance democracy. Making a timely and original contribution to the defining issues of our time-the state of the middle class, the problem of inequality, and the crisis of democratic governance-Restoring the Middle Class through Wage Policy will be of interest to students and researchers considering the impact of such approaches across the fields of public policy, economics, and political science.

Contributing to the debate on work performance evaluation in a time of technological transformation, this book explores the impact of digitisation on production and organisation models, as well as on the rights and interests of the stakeholders involved. As organisations down-size, merge with other companies and become decentralised, the boundaries in employer-employee-customer relationships are blurred and new models for the organisation and assessment of work performance have emerged. With these new models, innovative regulatory approaches are sorely needed. Taking an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on theoretical concepts from organisation studies, human resource management, sociology and labour economics, this all-encompassing collection is not only essential reading for academics and students, but also for policy-makers and employers who are looking for innovative and practical solutions to the challenges of modern employment relations.

The economic recession of the 1980s changed the face of industrial relations in Britain. Originally published in 1985, this book brings together all the major developments from that time and examines organizational strategies in industrial relations from a cost-effectiveness standpoint. Contemporary issues, ever more relevant, such as flexible working patterns, are discussed in relation to the conflicting demands of unions and management. Appropriate courses of action are discussed, with many examples of how new ideas were put into practice.

The chapters in this volume study transnational social relationships and cross-border connections between 'ordinary' people that arise from the increasingly large-scale mobilities and migrations between Thailand and 'the West'. While Thai and Western people's social relationships are usually studied as personal stories within a cross-border marriage migration perspective, this book considers it necessary to see them as more than marriage migration. Even though a focus on the 'personal life stories' of marriage migrants provides valuable insights, it can also mask consideration of the structural context of socially embedded cross- border connections and exchanges, as well as state restrictions, that, first, make people's decisions to move a possibility in the first place, and second, shape a migrant's post- migration life- trajectory and experiences, relative to others in their origin and settlement societies. The chapters on Thai women who marry and move with older Western men, Western men and women who move to Thailand to retire or for leisure, and Thai rural families transformed by mobilities and migration, try to draw out their gendered experiences of transnational living. The individual choices that shaped these lives, and the surprising prevalence of lives like these in Thailand and abroad, needs to be understood within context as an outcome of the specific globalisation processes that have shaped Thailand through transnational links to other parts of the world over the last decades. Globalisation and penetration by foreign capital, cultures, and people through mass tourism is key to this explanatory backstory as well as the internal rural/ urban cleavages that drive Thailand's economic development. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

This book helps in pushing forward a Kaleckian research agenda that is even more urgent given the 2007-2009 financial crisis and the current post-COVID recovery. Michal Kalecki was a leading heterodox economist, whose influence in the field perhaps even surpasses that of Keynes. Kalecki's insights are even more relevant today, and scholars are encouraged to apply his conclusions to ensure the sustainability of our economic systems. This edited volume, honouring the work of Michal Kalecki, includes chapters contributed by celebrated Kaleckian economists. In honour of the 50th anniversary of his demise, the Review of Political Economy (ROPE) and Edward Lipinski Foundation hosted a conference in September 2020 to celebrate his contribution to heterodox economics and his lasting legacy. These chapters, honouring the work of Michal Kalecki, span a panoply of topics and include a personal note from one of his former students and friend, and cover topics such as Kalecki's relationship with the Cantabrigians, labour economics, fiscal policy, income distribution, gender, finance, debt, and democracy. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Review of Political Economy.

Originally published in 1979, the purpose of this book is to introduce a theory of the distribution of national income between wages, profits and other categories of income. The relation between this branch of distribution theory and other areas of economics is explained in the Introduction. The first six chapters are designed to introduce distribution theory to students of intermediate economic principles. The reader should be familiar with the basic analysis of supply, demand and market equilibrium, and with the use of indifference curves to represent a consumer's preferences. The remaining seven chapters discuss developments of the theory introduced in the first six.

The promotion of social protection in Sub-Saharan Africa happens in a context where informal labour markets constitute the norm, and where most workers live uncertain livelihoods with very limited access to official social protection. The dominant social protection agenda and the associated literature come with an almost exclusive focus on donor and state programmes even if their coverage is limited to small parts of the populations - and in no way stands measure to the needs. In these circumstances, people depend on other means of protection and cushioning against risks and vulnerabilities including different forms of collective self-organizing providing alternative forms of social protection. These informal, bottom-up forms of social protection are at a nascent stage of social protection discussions and little is known about the extent or models of these informal mechanisms. This book seeks to fill this gap by focusing on three important sectors of informal work, namely: transport, construction, and micro-trade in Kenya and Tanzania. It explores how the global social protection agenda interacts with informal contexts and how it fits with the actual realities of the informal workers. Consequently, the authors examine and compare the social protection models conceptualized and implemented 'from above' by the public authorities in Tanzania and Kenya with social protection mechanisms 'from below' by the informal workers own collective associations. The book will be of interest to academics in International Development Studies, Political Economy, and African Studies, as well as development practitioners and policy communities.