Islamic Macroeconomics proposes an Islamic model that offers significant prospects for economic growth and durable macroeconomic stability, and which is immune to the defects of the economic models prevailing both in developed and developing countries. An Islamic model advocates a limited government confined to its natural duties of defence, justice, education, health, infrastructure, regulation, and welfare of the vulnerable population. It prohibits interest-based debt and money, and requires full liberalization of all markets including labor, financial, commodity, trade, and foreign exchange markets. The government should be Sharia-compliant in its taxation power and regulatory intervention; it ought to reduce unproductive spending in favor of productive spending. This book is essential reading for students and academics of Islamic economics and finance, economists, practitioners, and researchers.

Increasingly, the governments of virtually all industrialised countries are confronted with persistent problems of unemployment and low pay for those with little formal education and few skills. To combat this growing problem, various countries are utilising different remedies - usually with disappointing results.Policy Measures for Low-Wage Employment in Europe is a focused and up-to-date set of studies highlighting several important new findings. The book considers in-depth policy measures in the areas of taxation, benefits and employer subsidies aimed at the low-skilled and illustrates the limitations of short-term solutions. The policy debate is extended to encompass the role of product demand related to low-paid, low-skilled work and to the functioning of the labour market. In particular, the study investigates the role of job satisfaction and turn over in two major low-paying sectors - the retail trade and the hotel industry. This book will prove a valuable contribution to the literature for labour economists and policymakers at European and national level and policy officers of trade union and employment organisations. Those interested in labour market problems will also find the work to be a fascinating read.

Dependent self-employment is widely perceived as a rapidly growing form of precarious work conducted by marginalised lower-skilled workers subcontracted by large corporations. Unpacking a comprehensive survey of 35 European countries, Colin C. Williams and Ioana Alexandra Horodnic map the lived realities of the distribution and characteristics of dependent self-employment to challenge this broad and erroneous perception. Featuring rigorous empirical research, Dependent Self-Employment moves beyond the reliance on anecdotal evidence to fill in gaping lacunae in our understanding of employment. Reporting on the European Working Conditions Survey of 2015, this impressive book provides a crucial contribution to our understanding of dependent self-employment in the 21st century, challenging not only academic perceptions, but also depictions of work in the media and political discourse. The authors expertly navigate the 'grey zone' of defining dependent self-employment, embracing the spectrum of employment relationships and outlining the limits to the rights and authority of the dependently self-employed. Bold and comprehensive, this timely book offers critical insight for researchers at all levels exploring the nature and distribution of employment in Europe. Given the current public debates on the platform economy, this book will also prove useful for practitioners and policy-makers in labour inspectorates, tax administrations and social security institutions worldwide.

Originally published in 1989 this book gives an overview of the empirical work on new technology objectives, together with an analysis of management strategies for adoption at the corporate, technological and people levels. It also reviews previous work on the extent to which staff at different levels, and from different specialism, are involved in decision-making, as well as the adoption process more generally. The book looks at different approaches to analysing organizational contexts and provides a framework for studying the stages of the adoption process. The book includes case studies - two in financial services and two in engineering contexts.

Recently, evolutionary theories of economic and technological change have attracted a considerable amount of attention which reflects the problems encountered by mainstream analysis of dynamic phenomena and quantitative change. This book, originally published in 1991, develops the debate and draws on the concepts of evolutionary biology, nonequilibrium thermodynamics, systems and organization theory. While recognizing that new technology is not the cause of quantitative change, the editors claim it should play a more central role in economic theory and policy. At the same time, the ground is laid for a more generalized concept of innovation and experimentation and their relation to routine activities. The book is intended for economists.

Originally published in 1988 this book was the culmination of 7 years of research in micro-electronics by the Center for Science and Technology Policy in New York. It includes original comparative study of corporate strategy in American, Japanese, and European firms, as well as an account of the evolution of technical alliances. It provides a detailed examination of the global micro-electronics industry in all its aspects - technological, economic, strategic and institutional and goes beyond organizing and presenting the facts to offer new perspectives, analyses and opinions.

Originally published in 1967 and the result of extensive interviews and case studies, this book examines the implications of technical change. Although focussed on the early introduction of computers the kinds of problems discussed in this book are found in technical change more widely and the book therefore continues to have enduring relevance. The book is divided into three parts - an attitude survey of the administrative staff in departments affected by the introduction of computers, a study of the mechanisms of change and a second survey and re-examination of departmental organisation and work flow.

Originally published in 1986, this book was published at a time when the manufacturing structure of advanced economies was transformed. The growing internationalization of production, the rising power of giant corporations and the increasing rate of technological innovation remain key issues today. The impact of these changes is felt unevenly between regions, shown by huge job losses in some places and high-tech based growth in others. Drawing together contributions from economists, geographers, sociologists and management specialists, the problems facing the declining regions are discussed and analyzed. The book will be of interest to researchers, planners and policymakers concerned with the regional aspects of technological change and industrial restructuring.

The revolution in new technology gave rise to new work patterns and improved productivity, all of which affect the management of human resources. Expectations for increased efficiency have not always been fulfilled because of the problems that have arisen in workings of labour relations. How can management maximize the benefits of these technologies while co-operating with their employees? How far are trade unions involved in the decisions as companies adopt new technology? Is the workforce consulted in systems design? This book, originally published in 1992 looks at the problems of developing strategies in information technology when considering labour relations. Experts in industrial sociology, human resource management and organizational behaviour assess the achievements and failures, including consideration of issues such as public sector work, gender and race. Drawing on empirical evidence, the contributors cover a wide range of industries including case studies in electronics and banking, together with international comparisons.

Following the 2008 "global" financial crisis, the viability of globalised financial capitalism was called into question. The resulting fear and uncertainty produced a momentary return to "Keynesian" policies. But as soon as emergency stimuli - and bank bail-outs - appeared to stabilise the situation, there was a sharp reversal; and successive British governments and the financial sector have since attempted to return to business as usual. Historically, much smaller shocks have been able to produce dramatic change, with the 1978 "Winter of Discontent" providing a catalyst for the election of Margaret Thatcher, the ultimate abandonment of the post-war Keynesian consensus, and the ushering-in of neoliberalism. Nor is apparent success a guarantee against change, with Winston Churchill being swept from office by the first majority Labour government in 1945 - at a point which should have marked his greatest triumph. In this book, these apparently inexplicable shifts in the conventional wisdom and the accompanying policy paradigm are explored through the lens of the interest groups that have jostled for position since the second industrial revolution. In this context, inequality, poverty, free market capitalism and the social welfare state have interacted in an uneasy, dynamic dance - the "insecurity cycle". The authors explore these interactions, their impact on the relationship between society and the economy, and the possible implications of Brexit and a re-energised political left. Written in an engaging and accessible style, Labour, Finance and Inequality will be a key resource for academics and students of social and political economics as well as public policy. It will also offer considerable insight to policy makers and a more general non-specialist audience.

Organized labor is about the collective efforts of employees to improve their economic, social, and political position. It can be studied from many different points of view historical, economic, sociological, or legal but it is fundamentally about the struggle for human rights and social justice. As a rule, organized labor has tried to make the world a fairer place. Even though it has only ever covered a minority of employees in most countries, its effects on their political, economic, and social systems have been generally positive. History shows that when organized labor is repressed, the whole society suffers and is made less just. The Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor looks at the history of organized labor to see where it came from and where it has been. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, a glossary of terms, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on most countries, international as well as national labor organizations, major labor unions, leaders, and other aspects of organized labor such as changes in the composition of its membership. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about organized labor."

In these two volumes, a group of distinguished economists debate the way in which evidence, in particular econometric evidence, can and should be used to relate macroeconomic theories to the real world. Topics covered include the business cycle, monetary policy, economic growth, the impact of new econometric techniques, the IS-LM model, the labour market, new Keynesian macroeconomics, and the use of macroeconomics in official documents.

In A Theory of Full Employment, Y. S. Brenner reviews the current drift toward a society he finds neither economically expedient nor morally attractive, and N. Brenner-Golomb discusses the risks involved for science and society in the newfangled sophism hiding behind post-modern ideas and "political correctness." Both authors emphasize the need to revive the public's political engagement and revise economic theory to restore to society the humane perspective that inspired the welfare state. They contend that if people will abandon outworn habits of thought, consider alternatives, and renew their political engagement, they may find useful employment for all who are able and willing to work and end the fear of destitution. Although scientists' philosophical backgrounds seldom influence their answers, they do determine their questions, and the final outcome can depend on this. Neoclassical economists are ill equipped to ask questions about the long-term dynamic processes of our complex economic reality. They leave out of their models variables not easily quantified and prefer mathematical precision to the study of the intricacy of life. Paul Samuelson, Robert Solow, and others have tried to overcome this by grouping self-adjusting elements into "proxy" variables, thus synthesizing neoclassical and Keynesian ideas. But most of today's critics of the ruling dogma go largely unheard. This volume is intended to convince professional economists who study the economic system as a whole to reexamine some of the assumptions behind reigning economic theories. A second objective is to explain to the general public why currently fashionable policies cannot solve massive long-term unemployment. Finally, it shows that if political engagement is revived, we may escape the economic morass and moral wasteland into which, the fashionable policies have been leading us since the 1970s. This book will appeal to economists, politicians, sociologists, and a wider public concerned about today's economic malaise.

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.

This volume of Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory and Labor-Managed Firms consists of ten original papers. The first five papers address the effects of institutions of governance (at the workplace and corporate levels), including new forms of workplace governance (e.g., self-directed teams), a traditional form (or trade unions) and financial participation schemes. The subsequent three papers turn to the issues of the determinants of the incidence of such institutions, followed by two theoretical contributions.

The paper by Tor Eriksson introduces a new survey of participatory employment practices in Danish firms, and connects these practices to productivity gains for the firm and wage gain for workers.

Jos?? Alberto Bayo-Moriones, Pedro Javier Galilea-Salvatierra, and Javier Merino-D??az de Cerio introduce a new telephone survey of participatory employment practices in 965 manufacturing establishments in Spain, and investigate whether these practices lead to gains for the firm and workers.

While the above two papers focus on new institutions of workplace governance, the next paper studies a traditional institution of workplace governance, i.e., trade unions. Chris Doucouliagos and Patrice Laroche conduct a meta-analysis of the effect of unions on productivity growth.

All three papers so far concentrate on non-financial aspects of governance. The next two papers tackle such financial aspects. The contribution by Agustin Ros is an empirical study of the effects of employee ownership on effort/shirking and horizontal monitoring based on rich survey data collected by the author on an employee owned firm and 6 comparable private firms.

The paper by Everaert and Hildebrandt contributes to the literatures on transition economies and participatory firms by examining the determinants of the incidence of soft budget constraints (SBCs), in particular enterprise ownership structure (including different forms of private ownership).

The next three papers turn to the issues of the determinants of participation. Andrew Pendleton, Erik Poutsma, Jos Van Ommeren and Chris Brewster use a unique cross-national survey of financial participation schemes in 2,506 establishments in 14 EU countries, and try to study the determinants of the adoption of such schemes.

Christopher Adams uses rich data on 1,153 product line workers in 162 British private sector manufacturing establishments to examine the use of group incentives (profit sharing or employee share ownership) and worker participation in decision making (specifically over the range of tasks performed).

The paper by Nicholas Wilson, Hao Zhang, and Andrew Robinson is an empirical study that examines hypotheses arising from a transaction cost economics (TCE) framework to explain employee share ownership.

The last two papers are theoretical contributions. Jan Erik Askildsen and Norman Ireland carefully develop a model of bargaining by a union and a firm over future benefits (e.g., a defined benefit pension) when workers may not receive these benefits either because the firm goes out of business before the benefit is to be paid or the worker leaves the firm before the benefit is vested.

In his paper "Comparative Systems, Destructive Trade and World Distributive Justice," one of the pioneers on the broad field of participatory and labor managedfirms, Jaroslav Vanek, extends earlier work by presenting an analysis of the impact of international trade in today's globalized economy.

Since the middle of the twentieth century, economists have invested great resources into using statistical evidence to relate macroeconomic theories to the real world, and many new econometric techniques have been employed. In these two volumes, a distinguished group of economic theorists, econometricians, and economic methodologists examine how evidence has been used and how it should be used to understand the real world. Volume 1 focuses on the contribution of econometric techniques to understanding the macroeconomic world. It covers the use of evidence to understand the business cycle, the operation of monetary policy, and economic growth. A further section offers assessments of the overall impact of recent econometric techniques such as cointegration and unit roots. Volume 2 focuses on the labour market and economic policy, with sections covering the IS-LM model, the labour market, new Keynesian macroeconomics, and the use of macroeconomics in official documents (in both the USA and the EU). These volumes will be valuable to advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and practitioners for their clear presentation of opposing perspectives on macroeconomics and how evidence should be used. The chapters are complemented by discussion sections revealing the perspectives of other contributors on the methodological issues raised.

Why is it so difficult to turn girls' success at school into success in the labour market? How does detailed evidence about women's engagement with local labour markets affect the 'preference theory' debate? Why is part-time employment such a popular but economically damaging choice for women? What barriers still limit women's horizons and narrow their aspirations? Using a new and original approach, this illuminating book explores women's employment at the start of the 21st century, in particular identifying aspects of women's labour market situation which remain poorly understood and challenging much 'received wisdom' about women and work. The contributors examine pervasive myths about women in employment which have influenced policy and explore a number of theoretical puzzles and problems which persist despite attempts to tackle them. "Policy for a change" will be essential reading for professionals, employers and trade unions working in human resources, regeneration, equalities and diversity, anti-poverty, skills and training, as well as for researchers, teachers and students in sociology, social and public policy, labour market economics, urban studies and management.

In the wake of the Greek crisis, the future of the EU is the subject of a great deal of debate. This book critically evaluates the current new monetarist model of Economic and Monetary Union in Europe, presenting an alternative post-Keynesian (progressive) model, aimed at addressing the current problems of trade imbalance and asymmetric macroeconomic policy infrastructure that are augmenting tensions within the Eurozone. The book's approach is based upon the development of a common, rather than a single, currency approach, and utilises post-Keynesian policy solutions in order to create a form of EMU which will promote full employment rather than austerity.

During the last two decades, rapid economic growth and development in India has been based upon the mass employment of informal labour. Using case studies from three urban regions, this book examines this growth in modern India's cities and towns. It argues that India has undergone a process of uneven and combined development during its integration with the world economy, leading to a distorted form of urban development. This book is about work and resistance in India's massive 'informal economy'. It looks at the growth of informal labour in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi during an era of neoliberal economic policymaking. Going beyond mainstream accounts, it argues that India's rapid economic development has been based upon the mass employment of workers on low wages who lack basic social protection and rights at work. It discusses how urban development in India is characterised by a combination of industrialisation, industrial relocation, restructuring and informalisation. Departing from some existing studies of de-industrialisation, it re-frames informalisation as a process that complements, rather than contradicts, contemporary industrialisation in rapidly-emerging economies. The book adopts a 'classes of labour' approach, classifying each case of informal labour as a specific 'form of exploitation': as a different way for employers to lower production costs, control workers and increase enterprise flexibility. Offering a critique of existing data on the measurement and monitoring of informal labour and employment, the book is relevant to students and scholars of Development Studies, International Political Economy and South Asian Studies.

Originally published in 1979, this reader presents an industrialist view of the labour market and economics as they stood at the time in the United States. The essays collated aim to answer macroeconomic questions on this topic as well as exploring issues related closely to employment and inflation. This title will be of interest to students of business and economics.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was enacted in India with the multiple objectives of providing employment in a rights-based framework, addressing rural poverty, checking migration, and building rural infrastructure. As such, every year around 15-20 per cent of households in India overall and 30 per cent in rural India receive some form of employment share under the MGNREGA programme. This volume looks at various aspect of the scheme, its linkage with employment, agricultural wages, livelihood and food security, gender issues, and migration in rural India. It also discusses challenges in implementation, hurdles and the relative successes of the scheme. Based on primary survey data from 16 major states in the country, the findings of the study provide key insights into MGNREGA and assess the implications for other welfare-oriented programmes. Rich in empirical data, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of political economy, economics, agriculture, rural development and sociology, as well as policymakers and nongovernmental organisations.

 In the globalized economy, labor migration has become of central importance. A key issue in the analysis of immigration is how the migrants fare in the economy in which they migrate, and how they assimilate towards the behavior of the natives. Using data from the United States, Canada, many European countries, Australia and New Zealand, the chapters study the developments of earnings, employment, unemployment, self-employment, occupational choices and educational attainment after migration. The book also investigates the role of language in labor market integration and examines the situation of illegal, legalized and unwilling migrants. Policy effects are also studied: Among those are the effects of selection criteria of labor market success and the effects immigrants have on the public sector budget of the receiving country. Hence, the book provides a broad picture of the performance of migrants.

Recently published figures predict that the number of employed individuals between the ages of 55 and 64 will increase by 11 million by 2002; on average, today's 65-year-old can expect to live to 83, reflecting general trends in increased health and longevity. As the huge cadre of baby boomers approaches traditional retirement age, such factors as financial security, health benefits, and the attractiveness of staying active in later years are encouraging more older people to work well into their 60s, 70s, and even 80s, while businesses are learning to anticipate their long-term employment needs, and facing potential labor shortages unless they hold onto and develop more older workers. The economic, political, and cultural implications of these trends will reach staggering proportions, changing the make-up of organizations large and small and the very nature of work and our attitudes toward it. The Older Worker Advantage tackles these issues head on, taking into account both the organization's/manager's point of view and the older employee's point of view. Gordon Shea and Adolf Haasen analyze data from a wide variety of sources, including international comparisons, to explore the phenomenon of older workers in depth, dispelling common myths that contribute to age discrimination, and reinforcing the relevance of such qualities as life experience and communication skills for today's knowledge-driven enterprises. The authors showcase the pioneering efforts of such organizations as the Vita Needle Company, AES Corporation, and the U.S. Coast Guard, among others, in establishing programs and practices that develop older worker skills and support multigenerational collaboration--to the benefitof both individuals and the organization. In the process, they consider such timely topics as: *what motivates older workers; *the impact of technology on older worker training; *creating diverse project teams; *an emerging breed of managers attuned to older worker requirements and capabilities. Featuring diagnostic exercises, an appendix on legal protections for older workers, and specific tools for enhancing productivity and positive work environments, The Older Worker Advantage will be an essential resource for business owners and executives, managers, older employees, trainers, counselors, policymakers, educators, and students--anyone concerned with the profound changes in our workforce and its effects on young and old alike.

The sports agent has become a highly significant figure in contemporary sport business. The role of the agent is essential to our understanding of labour markets and labour relations in an increasingly globalised sports industry. Drawing on extensive empirical research into football around the world, this book explains what agents do, how their role has changed, and why this is important for future sport business. Offering analysis from economic, legal, social and historical perspectives, the book explores key topics such as: the history of sports agents including the emergence of the modern agent in US sport typologies and demographic profiles of agents in football valuations and organisational analysis of leading European agents and agencies relations between agents and clubs future directions for research into sports agents. Focusing on the major European leagues, this book goes further than any other in illuminating an important but under-researched aspect of contemporary sport business. It is a valuable resource for any student, researcher or policy-maker with an interest in sport business, sport management, sport policy, the economics of sport or labour economics.

Knowledge Workers in Contemporary China: Reform, and Resistance in the Publishing Industry concentrates on the trajectories of the labor process transformation of knowledge workers, mainly editors, in the Chinese publishing industry. The book focuses on their changing social, economic, and political roles, their dilemma, challenges, and opportunities associated with current social reform, and China's integration into the global political economy. At its core, the book addresses three different yet interrelated processes of the political economy of communication: commodification, structuration, and spatialization in the Chinese publishing industry. It examines whether worker organizations and trade unions are effective in presenting editors' legitimate rights and interests in current publishing reform. Through the political economic analysis of knowledge workers in China's publishing industry, particularly editors, Jianhua Yao attempts to help readers better understand the broader social and economic transformations, specifically the network of power relations and institutional contexts in which Chinese editors are situated, that have been taking place in China since the late 1970s.