The Islamic labor market rests on the principles of the free market exchange of Islamic economics. Regrettably, the latter has failed to keep pace with the rapidly growing academic and professional developments of the former. Much of the published work within Islamic economics is idealistic if not radically ideological with little relevance to the Islamic labor market, leaving students of Islamic economics without a coherent body of economic theory to understand the practical objectives of Shariah that gives a sense of direction to the developments in this field. Drawing upon received sources of goals of Shariah, the authors present an independent academic work which: Emphasizes the common conceptual grounds of labor market behavior shared by the objectives of Shariah approach as well as the conventional approach to economics. Adopts standard tools of contemporary economics to explain the industrial relations. Extends the conventional scope of the labor market and forces of the labor market under the umbrella of Shariah. Enables readers and practitioners of Islamic economics to make economic sense of Shariah compliance and human resource development. Explains how the economics of Shariah is liable to offer moral guidance and a sense of direction to regulators and practitioners of the Islamic labor market. Labor in an Islamic Setting will be of interest to postgraduate students, academics, middle and senior management in both the western and the Islamic business communities, researchers and policy makers.

This comparative analysis of growth, structural change and labour market dynamics in the Greater Mekong countries (Yunnan Province in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar) of Southeast Asia is the first of its kind. It explores economic integration and cooperation, the possibilities for improving the functioning of labour markets and facilitating mutually beneficial labour flows in the region. The book begins with a comparative overview of policy reforms, economic performance and structural changes, focusing on economic relations in the Greater Mekong countries. It then examines the salient features of labour market structures and policies, patterns of cross-border migration, and information systems, paying attention to the similarities and differences between countries. It is especially timely in the context of economic transition from socialist systems in the three Indochina countries, the ongoing policy reforms in Yunnan Province and Myanmar, and in light of the Asian financial crisis in shaping growth trends. The analysis yields policy recommendations for improvement in labour market performance. The book will be of great interest to development and labour economists and those working in the field of Asian studies, as well as to policymakers.

This volume explains the salient features of the Japanese labour market and their evolution through time. The key idea is integrated segmentation: on the demand side, within the educational system; on the supply side, monitoring the costs which underlie labour contracts. Demand- and supply-side segmentation exists in a number of countries. What is peculiar to Japan is the way demand and supply segmentation overlap and the muting of the wage and income differentials which segmentation generates. Because it is segmented on both supply and demand sides the Japanese labour market is highly competitive; but because it is integrated, cooperation is deeply rooted within it as well.

This book provides a cross-national European comparative analysis of the presence and absence of women on the board of directors of companies. It asks whether a welfare state regime analysis is useful at this elite level as a way of understanding employment practices or whether state policy gives way to more universal and globalized factors.

This book is about the enterprise reform in China in general, and the Contract Management Responsibility System (the CMRS) in particular. The latter is an institutional arrangement to deal with the relation between the government and the state-owned enterprise which has always been at the centre of the enterprise reform. This research is based on four in-depth case studies of Chinese state-owned companies.

The states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar) form the largest destination for labour migration in the global South and possess the most extreme reliance on labour migration of any region in the global economy. In all of these states the majority of the working population is composed of temporary, migrant workers with no citizenship rights. In Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the UAE, migrant workers exceed 80% of the labour force. These workers are responsible for the prodigious development boom across the region - involved in construction, maintenance and infrastructure work - as well as service, clerical, retail and domestic activities. Neighbouring countries are almost fully dependent on the labour markets of the Gulf for their overseas workforce, and remittances from these workers are critical to the survival of millions of people throughout the region. For these reasons, the Gulf takes a central place in contemporary debates around migration and labour in the global economy. This book attempts to bring together and explore these issues.The key argument is that the relationship between 'citizen' and 'non-citizen' holds immense significance for understanding the construction of class, gender, city and state in the Gulf - too often these questions are occluded in scholarly and popular accounts of the region. The precarious working conditions of migrants in the Gulf has facilitated high levels of exploitation and has been utilized at times of economic downturn to displace crisis to surrounding regions. It has also engendered a variety of forms of social mobilization and resistance among migrant workers and citizens, presenting new challenges for political actors. New forms of migration are emerging, linked to highly-skilled labour and the rebranding of the Gulf itself. Bringing together scholars on the Gulf, including academics based in the region itself, the book will critically explore all of these questions - putting the question of migration at the core of the social structures and political economy of the GCC states.The book covers a wide range of themes and case studies, including theoretical and historical perspectives; migration and the Gulf political economy; migration and gender in the Gulf; and new forms of migration to the Gulf. Through each chapter, authors will critically reflect upon the dominant understandings of migration to the Gulf, exploring the ways in which migration has helped to underpin the construction of class, gender, city and state within the GCC.

This book traces the development of paid work for visually impaired people in the UK from the 18th century to the present day. It gives a voice to visually impaired people to talk about their working lives and documents the history of employment from their experience, an approach which is severely lacking in the current literature about visual impairment and employment. By analysing fifty in-depth face-to-face interviews with visually impaired people talking about their working lives (featuring those who have worked in traditional jobs such as telephony, physiotherapy and piano tuning, to those who have pursued more unusual occupations and professions), and grouping them according to occupation and framed by documentary, historical research, these stories can be situated in their broader political, economic, ideological and cultural contexts. The themes that emerge will help to inform present day policy and practice within a context of high unemployment amongst visually impaired people of working age. It is part of a growing literature which gives voice to disabled people about their own lives and which adds to the growing academic discipline of disability studies and the empowerment of disabled people.

This book explores the complex relationship between social security and economic development, arguing that social security contributes positively to economic development by promoting social investments that not only foster economic growth but enhance social welfare for all. The contributors analyse the various forms of social security, and, through comprehensive analysis of country experiences, demonstrates that the relationship between social security and economic development defies the simplistic interpretations currently popular in literature on the subject. A variety of country case studies are explored including Britain, Chile, China, India, Korea, Norway, Singapore, South Africa and the United States. This topical volume is a vital companion for all interested in the dynamics of the relationship between social security and the economy.

Profit Power Economics is the first comprehensive manual of competitive strategy and value-investing for the economic realities of the 21st century, an age in which information costs are getting close to zero and everyone is connected. This book offers a new economic paradigm for our age-and the tools to make the most of it. Readers learn to apply these rules step-by-step to navigate today's new challenges: to choose among vastly expanded investment opportunities; exploit unprecedented freedom to structure and manage modern global enterprises; win in new 3-dimensional corporate competition; and tailor strategies to new powerlaw market dynamics. Profit Power Economics includes lively lessons from the author's experience and examples from other successful investors and enterprises-all in the context of cutting-edge economics. Visionary strategist, experienced corporate executive, banker, and economist Mia de Kuijper takes readers from first principles to practical applications. She offers new ideas and concepts, illustrated with lively lessons from her own experience and from other successful investors and organizations. Profit Power Economics gives readers a clear grasp of the underlying forces that are reshaping our world as well as a step-by-step approach to build (or find) exceptionally high-return enterprises and to navigate new-age market dynamics. She declares that it is high time that we update our ideas about competition, business models, market dynamics and risks, even about the nature of winning itself. The emergence of perfect information-fast-moving, very cheap, universally available information and unlimited connectivity-is transforming our fundamentals so dramatically that this is grounds for doubting many of the most familiar principles of mainstream economics. Corporate leaders, political leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, strategists, not-for-profit organizations, marketers, and students of modern economics will find an invaluable resource in Profit Power Economics.

The Russian labour market has been hailed by some economists as being 'perfectly flexible' because Russia has achieved enormous employment restructuring with minimal unemployment, and by others as plagued by rigidities since pay structures have been frozen, inequality has increased and job creation has been negligible. Such disagreements reflect both the lack of serious research on the formation of a labour market in Russia and the lack of theoretical agreement as to what constitutes a labour market. Simon Clarke addresses these empirical and theoretical issues on the basis of statistical survey and case study data collected within the framework of a large-scale collaborative research programme on the restructuring of labour and employment in Russia. The book reviews the historical context, the statistical data and the theoretical issues before proceeding to a detailed analysis of the development of the labour market in the interaction of the labour market strategies of employers and employees. The Formation of a Labour Market in Russia will be of interest to scholars of transition studies and labour economics, industrial relations specialists and sociologists of labour.

The last two decades have seen a reshaping of the international economy together with a radical weakening in the conditions of the working class. New productive techniques and methods in the organization of labour have been implemented on a world-wide scale partly as a consequence of the financialization of capital. The geographical diffusion of market relations has continued and with it the dominance of capital in all realms of social reproduction. In charting this change, the book offers an alternative view of contemporary capitalism. It has been suggested that we are entering a new phase where the 'globalization' of economic activities is fully achieved, where 'post-Fordist' regulation has overcome the crisis of Keynesian capitalism, and where the dominant tendency is towards the 'end of work'. In contrast to this view, the authors of this book argue that current internationalization is not a structure, but a contradictory process and that new patterns in the division of labour while successful in increasing the pressure over workers have not been able to supersede Fordism entirely. They conclude that the slow growth of the economies, caused by neoliberal economic policies, is a crucial factor in explaining unemployment and the fragmentation of labour.

This book provides an up-to-date survey of existing economic literature on the dimensions of growing income inequalities in both advanced and emerging countries. The different explanations and dimensions of inequalities are addressed, particularly globalization, technical progress, in-work poverty, changes in labour market institutions, education and intergenerational mobility, growth and development. The nine chapters provide simplified models exploring each of these elements, and assess commonly accepted explanations and mechanisms.

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 book considers the transformative impact of global trade and production networks on local economies, work and labor organization, and various forms and meanings of community. It examines the socio-economic transformation in Asia and the restructuring of manufacturing industries, ports and the information technology sector"--Provided by publisher.

This study examines fundamental theoretical and conceptual issues of social change in Latin America in the context of detailed empirical analysis. It challenges the major assumptions and propositions that underlie globalization theory, reworking and fine tuning the concepts of imperialism and social class as relevant to understanding the 'new world order'. The study centers on the structural features of Latin America and the state policies reconcentrating power in the capitalist class at the expense of labor. The study surveys the contradictory tendencies of concentrated wealth and power and the emergence of new socio-political movements and alternative development strategies to the dominant paradigm.

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.

As China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia become world economic powers, questions arise regarding the fate of workers in these countries. This book examines the difficult road traveled by human rights movements in these nations when trying to create independent labor organizations free from governmental interference. The in-depth treatment includes: a worker's rights/labor standards model individumental interference comprehensive data tables on many aspects of the labor struggle ally crafted for each of these nations comprehensive data tables on many aspects of the labor struggle China's problems as it moves from complete state economic control to a modified form of capitalism.

A lively, personalized account incorporating objective analysis and solid information accumulated over 42 years, this book presents a graphic picture of the construction industry from an insider's point of view. The volume focuses on the culture of construction workers, the management style of contractors, and the structural and organizational nature of the industry. It considers such unique features of construction as its craft-oriented technology, decentralized decision-making by workers on the job site, and non-bureaucratic methods of field supervision. Using the research of others, government publications, and his own intimate experience in the industry, the author provides an insightful view of a unique industry in modern America.

The book opens with an overview of the industry, illustrating how construction is organized, the craft breakdown, and the cultural values of the crafts. It then considers such topics as workers' job satisfaction, craft organization of the work, and the dangerous nature of construction. Separate chapters are devoted to women construction workers, a recent phenomenon in the industry, and to minorities and the role of affirmative action. In conclusion, the book argues that construction is significant both as a major industry and as a model for organizing work to produce worker satisfaction.

The increasing demand for health care and advances in healthcare technologies has exacerbated the present shortage of health personnel. In response to these changes, physicians may choose to offer their services elsewhere. Labor and Health Economics in the Mediterranean Region: Migration and Mobility of Medical Doctors addresses the mobility of physicians in the Mediterranean region within a global context, focusing on the role mobility has played in the global health system in both developed and developing economies. Besides universities and researchers, public and private medical practitioners and agencies can make use of this book to further their knowledge of the changing healthcare industry.

This book investigates and documents multidimensional poverty in the United States and identifies patterns and relationships that contribute to the development of a more complete understanding of the incidence and intensity of deprivation. The first part introduces multidimensional poverty and provides a rationale for viewing poverty through a lens of multiple deprivations. It discusses how the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) compares to more narrowly-focused, income-based poverty measures and emphasizes its usefulness and applicability for the formulation of related, welfare-enhancing public policies. The second part documents multidimensional poverty incidence, intensity, and corresponding MPI values at the aggregate level of detail, for various demographic cohorts, and across geographic locales. The book then presents results from an empirical analysis that identifies the determinants of multidimensional poverty incidence and of individual deprivation scores. The third part consists of three studies of multidimensional poverty, examining the effect of the Affordable Care Act on multidimensional poverty incidence and intensity, variation in multidimensional poverty across native- and foreign-born residents (and across immigrants' home countries) of the US, and variation in the respective indicators that contribute to multidimensional poverty across the life cycle. The book closes with two chapters. The first relays the findings of counterfactual exercises where certain deprivations are assumed to have been eliminated. The final chapter summarizes the work, draws inferences and arrives at conclusions, and discusses the corresponding public policy implications.

Expansion of non-standard employment under globalization is widely observed in all of the newly industrializing countries. This book explores the deregulation of labor markets, social protection for nonstandard workers, and social security reforms in accordance with the transformation of employment.

Is it possible for low-paid workers to obtain higher-paid jobs through upward mobility over time within the earnings distribution? Based on new empirical evidence from a number of European countries, the book focuses on earnings mobility, an issue that is of increasing concern to policymakers and governments throughout the world. The widening earnings dispersion which is developing in European labour markets has had the inevitable consequence of worsening the position of the poorer members of society. This book identifies those individual characteristics which affect upward mobility either by increasing or decreasing the probability of individual workers improving their chances of earning higher wages. The authors, including some of the leading labour economists in Europe, offer a comprehensive European perspective covering a total of thirteen countries. They shed new light on the way in which labour market incentives and institutions affect both the incidence and duration of low-paid employment. This book will be of interest to both academics with an interest in labour economics and policy makers throughout Europe.

Bill Dunn considers and contests accounts of globalization and post-Fordism that see structural economic change in the late Twentieth-century as having fundamentally worsened the conditions and weakened the potential of labour. Including a comparative survey of restructuring in four major industries; automobiles, construction, microelectronics and finance, the book suggests the timing of change and its complex and contradictory nature undermine structural explanations of labour's situation. It redirects attention towards labour's political defeats and own institutional shortcomings.