Equal opportunity is a powerful idea, and one with extremely broad appeal in contemporary politics, political theory, and law. But what does it mean? On close examination, the most attractive existing conceptions of equal opportunity turn out to be impossible to achieve in practice, or even in theory. As long as families are free to raise their children differently, no two people's opportunities will be equal; nor is it possible to disentangle someone's abilities or talents from her background advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, given different abilities and disabilities, different people need different opportunities, confounding most ways of imagining what counts as "equal." This book proposes an entirely new way of thinking about the project of equal opportunity. Instead of focusing on the chimera of literal equalization, we ought to work to broaden the range of opportunities open to people at every stage in life. We can achieve this in part by loosening the bottlenecks that constrain access to opportunities-the narrow places through which people must pass in order to pursue many life paths that open out on the other side. A bottleneck might be a test like the SAT, a credential requirement like a college degree, or a skill like speaking English. It might be membership in a favored caste or racial group. Bottlenecks are part of the opportunity structure of every society. But their severity varies. By loosening them, we can build a more open and pluralistic opportunity structure in which people have more of a chance, throughout their lives, to pursue paths they choose for themselves-rather than those dictated by limited opportunities. This book develops this idea and other elements of opportunity pluralism, then applies this approach to several contemporary egalitarian policy problems: class and access to education, workplace flexibility and work/family conflict, and antidiscrimination law.

This volume is a collection of selected papers using the framework of inframarginal analysis of the division of labour held at Monash University on 6-7 July 2001. This framework, pioneered mainly by Professor Xiaokai Yang, (with joint researches involving all the three editors and many of the authors), has been recommended by Professor James Buchanan (Nobel Laureate in Economics) as the most important analysis in economics in the world today.

This essential student resource is the first of its kind to study this period. Working chronologically from the early 1840s up to the end of the twentieth century, it examines over 150 years of women's employment history and the struggles they have faced.
With suggestions for research topics, an annotated bibliography to aid further research and a chronology of important events which places the subject in a broader historical context, Gerry Holloway considers how factors such as class, age, marital status, race and locality, along with wider economic and political issues, have affected women's job opportunities and status.
Key themes and issues that run through the book include:
* continuity and change
* the sexual division of labor
* women as a cheap labor force
* women's perceived primary role of motherhood
* women and trade unions
* equality and difference
* education and training.
Students of women's studies, gender studies and history will find this a fascinating and invaluable addition to their reading material.

Search Theory and Unemployment contains nine chapters that survey and extend the theory of job search and its application to the problem of unemployment. The volume ranges from surveys of job search theory that take microeconomic and macroeconomic perspectives to original theoretical contributions which focus on the externalities arising from non-sequential search and search under imperfect information. It includes a clear and authoritative survey of econometric methods that have been developed to estimate models of job search, as well as two lucid contributions to the empirical search literature. Finally, it includes a study that reviews and extends the literature on optimal unemployment insurance and concludes with an appraisal of the influence of search theory on the thinking of macroeconomic policymakers.

This book shows that basic income is a powerful tool for realizing economic justice in our modern society. Through an interdisciplinary investigation of basic income in Korea, involving theological and social scientific perspectives, the book covers the topic of basic income on an academic basis, an economic basis, and in terms of its institutionalization potential.Although modern society is a global one, centered on the economic ideology of neo-liberalism, the negative effects of social polarization caused by this are quite severe. It is also urgent to come up with alternative solutions to the problems of labor reduction and wage labor. Moreover, the expansion of productivity through collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence also presents a challenge. An interdisciplinary study on the meaning and restructuring of labor is therefore needed. This book traces themes supporting the concept of basic income appearing in the Old and New Testaments, as well as precedents relating to basic income in the context of capitalism in the thought of the Reformers. Within the framework of Christian ethics, the book looks at the ideological basis for basic income and its applicability to the current situation in order to pursue economic justice. Additionally, the book examines the practical feasibility and rationale for basic income by discussing the economics of basic income financing and the political economy implications for how it can be applied to real politics.

This book pulls together papers presented at a conference in honour of the 1981 Nobel Prize Winner for Economic Science, the late James Tobin. Among the contributors are Olivier Blanchard, Edmund Phelps, Charles Goodhart and Marco Buti. One of the main aims of the conference was to discuss what potential role monetary policy has on economic activity and unemployment reduction in three key currency zones - the United States, European Union and Japan.

Studies in Labor Supply, the second volume of Jacob Mincer's essays to be published in this series, focuses on the family context of labor supply especially that of women. Special attention is devoted to wage incentives and wage consequences of labor supply and to long term trends in the female labor force, a major social phenomenon of the twentieth century.Jacob Mincer's research reveals a rare combination of imaginative empirical analysis guided by a command of theory. His work and professional style have set the standard for empirical economics. This is especially true of his work on the labor force participation of married women. This is the second of two volumes containing carefully edited selections of Professor Mincer's most important essays, some of which are published here for the first time. Introductions to each volume provide overviews of the interconnections of the topics discussed, their conceptual coherence and empirical significance. Studies in Human Capital, the first volume of Professor Mincer's essays, is also available as part of this series.

Thisbook is the fruit of a number of years of assimilating another culture and learning about the evolution of its institutions, altogether an incr- iblyrich andrewarding experience. Ihopetopassonto the reader some of that richness in the belief that, even in a "globalizing" context, learning about other nations and cultures is more and more necessary. The reasons andvalues behind this belief are perhaps evident, but I amconvincedthat they bear repeating here. To begin with, the hasty generalizations that often liebehind the cynicism-and ultimately the violence-of ethnocentrism and xe- phobia are still being aired today and still need to be fought, even in "unified and advanced" regions of the world like Europe and the United States. The historical and social sciences disciplines need to be solicited constantly in this combat, even though they themselves are terrains of controversy and contestation. I personally have not lost faith in their "progressive" potential and character. Second, my belief is that only through this process of appeal to these disciplines and their findings can we resist a dangerous contemporary slide into simplisticand sensation- ist pictures of the world-viewpoints often associated with an implicit assumption that social and economic change are linear processes, so- how unfolding according to the same neat "logic" wherever they are at work.

The conventional wisdom that political and economic actors in colonial countries are passive and reactive is undermined by Goldberg's close examination of the decisions and calculations of leading political and economic actors. Goldberg shows how critical decisions affecting Egypt's integration into the world economy were based on clear understandings of what policies were most likely to advance the interests of leading interest groups, with results that continue to bedevil Egypt's political economy today. Drawing on core concepts in political economy, Goldberg focuses on how Egyptian cotton growers decided to invest in the development of product reputation, developed institutions to protect that reputation, and engaged in coalition politics to protect their interests. The result was a heavy reliance on child labour and thus the failure to provide education and skills necessary for economic development, undermining subsequent attempts to industrialize Egypt and move it away from the production of primary goods. This is a tale of paradoxes and unintended consequences of rational action.

Proponents of free trade routinely argue that an important benefit for developing countries is that it provides significant economic opportunities for their asset-less workers. By now, virtually all developing countries, have moved towards integrating themselves more closely with the international economy. To what extent have workers actually benefited from this integration? The Impact of Trade on Labor attempts to piece together broad-based evidence on the effects of trade liberalization on labor markets in developing countries in general, and selected countries from developing Asia in particular. The analysis of the available evidence takes into account the recent theoretical advances in this area.

The volume consists of nine substantive chapters separated into two parts. A main contribution of the first part is to use a blend of both theory and empirics to point out that the impact of trade liberalization on labor markets, including adjustment costs, depends in important ways on domestic labor market regulations and the nature of competition or market structure. Part I of the volume also presents a detailed discussion on the issue of labor standards, including whether trade access should be linked to a country's labor standards.

The second part of the volume moves on to a consideration of various related issues in three large and labor intensive countries, China, India and Indonesia. The approach taken in these studies is to focus on a specific issue of interest and examine this issue carefully for one country using available data. Thus the chapter on China examines the linkages between foreign direct investment and domestic labor standards; the Indonesia chapterassesses the relationship between trade and wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers; and the chapter on India focuses more broadly on how trade liberalization has impacted employment in the manufacturing sector, paying special attention to the issue of labor market regulations.

This book explores the extent to which a transformation of public employment regimes has taken place in four Western countries, and the factors influencing the pathways of reform. It demonstrates how public employment regimes have unravelled in different domains of public service, contesting the idea that the state remains a 'model' employer.

The connection between productive labour and effective demand has often been ignored and disputed in political economy, even by giants like Ricardo and Marx. This book traces the historical development of theories, concentrating in particularly on those of Malthus, Marx and Keynes. Particular attention is also paid to the Great Depression in the UK and USA.

As the controversies surrounding performance related pay have demonstrated, reward management is a key issue. Collecting the results of "fieldwork" investigations in factories and retail outlets, this book measures output before and after a change in methods of remuneration. The link between productivity and stress is explored and conclusions drawn. An introductory chapter, by the eminent economist P. Sargant Florence summarizes previously published productivity studies.

Structured in three parts, Economics of Fatigue and Unrest is as relevant today for the study of industrial relations and human resource management as when it was first published. It contains chapters on the following: * The growth of technical efficiency * The theory of fatigue and unrest * The costs of industrial inefficiency * The loss by staff turnover * The loss by absence * The loss by industrial accidents and ill-health

Labour focuses on the issues and problems concerning the efficient full employment of labour in a free market economy. The discussion is largely about the conditions (including comparative wages) underlying industrial efficiency and maximum production from various labour resources at least cost. By estimating man-power, analysing the human factor and measuring labour efficiency, the book summarizes contemporary evidence on employment conditions for or against efficiency and the effect upon the incidence of unemployment.

Covering the role of trades unions and labour organizations in industrial relations, Industry's Democratic Revolution contains case studies from Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and USA. Each chapter is authored by a president or secretary general of one of the largest industrial unions from that particular country, which gives an unparalleled insight into the workings of unions and their participation in the key issues of industrial relations such as: productivity factors; guaranteed wages; union participation in management decision-making; de-centralization of industrial power; and policy research.

Canada and the countries of Latin America are in the midst of major changes and choices in the area of labor markets and related social policy. These decisions are likely to have profound consequences for the quality of life of workers throughout the hemisphere. Labor Market Policies in Canada and Latin America: Challenges of the New Millennium reviews the evidence of Canada and Latin America on three major labor policy instruments - unemployment insurance, minimum wages and training - and on the effects of the payroll taxes which are the main means of funding the unemployment insurance system and other components of social expenditure. This is the first study attempting an in-depth comparison of these labor policy instruments between Canada and Latin America. The useful juxtaposition of Canadian and Latin American experiences comes at a time when the trend in Canada is to back away from the perhaps overly generous or ineffectively administered elements of the labor legislation/social security net and when Latin American countries have undertaken significant reforms of their past systems but require further changes to move toward the sorts of legislation and support systems that characterize developed countries. The experiences of Canada and Latin America are mutually relevant since all are small economies forced to adjust to events at the world or hemispheric level and most are inclined to approach policy in an intermediate fashion which falls between the more market-oriented American and the more interventionist European models. Together with its comparative aspect, this volume attempts a more balanced and in-depth assessment in each of the policy areas than has hitherto been available. The gradually increasing base of available empirical data on the period after the reforms has been used in the studies, which provide thorough syntheses of the available research for Canada and Latin America.

This comparative study of industrial relations provides an analysis of a wide range of phenomena, with a view to uncovering the origins of national diversity. It takes into account the notion of strategic choice, set within a series of constraints of environment, organizational and institutional conditions and power relationships. The book: covers a wide range of examples from the UK, USA, France, Germany Italy, Sweden, Eastern Europe, Latin America, India and Japan; includes a comprehensive analysis of management and employers' associations, labour and trades unions; and examines the role of the state in comparative perspective.

The voluntary sector is surprisingly understudied in economics. In order to fully understand economics, unpaid and voluntary work needs to be taken into account and afforded the same status as paid activities.
This book constitutes a rigorous economic analysis with special emphasis on gender issues and covers every conceivable angle of unpaid work and all its ramifications for the modern economy.
The unified vision that is offered by the leading array of contributors makes for a work of excellent quality. There is every chance that this book will become a seminal study on unpaid work and as such will provide a useful reference for students and academics involved in gender studies, econometrics, and consumption studies.

This book explores the impact of foreign migrant workers on elements of sovereign power in Japan and examines how the country's immigration control has been reshaped by the existence of these workers. It traces the changing situation of foreign migrant workers in Japan from the mid-1980s to the present day. A particular focus is the transition of these workers from 'temporary workers' to "long-term stayers" or "social beings."

John Grieve Smith traces the origins of postwar full employment policies in the experience of the interwar years and the work of Keynes and Beveridge. He reviews the successful achievement of full employment after the war and its subsequent abandonment as the Keynesian consensus gave way to the new, monetarist-inspired, orthodoxy. The book puts forward alternative proposals for expansionary policies, and for international financial reform. It is written throughout in terms accessible to both the layperson and the expert.

This highly topical study reflects on the current problems faced by social democratic parties in government when espousing policies of severe pragmatism and fiscal prudence, and provides an historical medium-term perspective to both parties' substantial changes in labour market policies. There is now a good deal of interest in the Third Way and the Neue Mitte, and this book provides much needed empirical detail, and solid analysis of the substance of these ideas. It will be of great interest to students and researchers in comparative politics, social democracy and economic policy.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203417542

Evaluation of social programs is now performed with greater frequency and with more methodological rigor than ever before. Yet it is not clear that the programs' effectiveness has improved because of this, or even that evaluation results have a rationalizing effect on policymaking. The author of this volume—which is based on a study of evaluation of U.S. employment and training policy from the passage of the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1963 to the welfare reforms of the 1980s and 1990s—argues that the increasing use of social scientific evaluations nonetheless has profound political consequences. Rather than influencing the programs themselves, evaluation research shapes the political discourse surrounding these programs, setting the terms in which the policy is known and discussed, and establishing conditions for entry into the debate. This study shows that even the most technical features of evaluation methodology are objects of a politics of knowledge and are by no means neutral with regard to the politics of the policies themselves. By applying ideas from the sociology of science to the area of applied social science, this work yields new insights that will be of interest to both of these areas. For the sociology of science, it demonstrates the value of this approach beyond the study of the natural sciences. For policy studies, it stimulates reflection on the political implications of methods normally assumed to be politically neutral. The conclusions about the political significance of evaluation research will also be of interest to political sociologists, who will find a novel way of looking at the role of social science in the formation of social policy.