This book empirically investigates the changes in labor market structure accompanying the labor market reform in China by focusing on the labor market segmentation problems from the 1980s to 2013. The book also aims to examine the effect of labor policy reforms on individual, household and enterprise behavior, including the causes and consequences of labor market reform in China, particularly the influences of labor policy reforms on labor market performance. Offering valuable insights into the changing structure of the Chinese economy, this book will be of interest to scholars, activists, and economists.

Consumption, Jobs and the Environment argues that the present pattern of development, based on everlasting economic growth, is completely unsatisfactory from a welfare point of view. It threatens ecological catastrophe while perpetuating poverty. Roy Carr-Hill and John Lintott propose an alternative policy framework based explicitly on welfare and suggest where cuts in consumption, working hours and ecological risks might be made most usefully.

This book analyzes the structural factors that underlie the persistent mass poverty and extreme inequality in South Asian countries. It highlights the fact that the supposed trade-off between output growth and job creation is a false dilemma. Growth can create jobs, and jobs can drive growth, mutually reinforcing one another. Increased employment and better jobs would mitigate the problems arising from a widening inequality gap. The book argues that policies focused on employment generation, mostly through industrialization, are the way forward in terms of providing livelihoods, sustaining growth and reducing inequality. The book is divided into two main parts. Part A explores cases in selected countries in South Asia in detail, primarily focusing on the opportunities and challenges of job creation in the manufacturing sector, as well as related issues, including constraints on manufacturing-sector growth in South Asia, exports and trade linkages, participation in value chains and the role of investment. In turn, Part B addresses a number of aspects that can promote a deeper understanding of strategies for industrialization and employment creation in the South Asian context, including regional cooperation, skill development, and industrial competitiveness. Gathering contributions from some of the region's top minds, this book is of interest to scholars, researchers, policymakers and industry analysts alike.

This book seeks to identify the forces which explain how and why some parts of the world have grown rich and others have lagged behind. Encompassing 2000 years of history, part 1 begins with the Roman Empire and explores the key factors that have influenced economic development in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. Part 2 covers the development of macroeconomic tools of analysis from the 17th century to the present. Part 3 looks to the future and considers what the shape of the world economy might be in 2030. Combining both the close quantitative analysis for which Professor Maddison is famous with a more qualitative approach that takes into account the complexity of the forces at work, this book provides students and all interested readers with a totally fascinating overview of world economic history. Professor Maddison has the unique ability to synthesise vast amounts of information into a clear narrative flow that entertains as well as informs, making this text an invaluable resource for all students and scholars, and anyone interested in trying to understand why some parts of the World are so much richer than others.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Policymakers throughout Europe are enacting policies to support youth labour market integration. However, many young people continue to face unemployment, job insecurity, and the subsequent consequences. Adopting a mixed-method and multilevel perspective, this book provides a comprehensive investigation into the multifaceted consequences of social exclusion. Drawing on rich pan-European comparative and quantitative data, and interviews with young people from across Europe, this text gives a platform to the unheard voices of young people. Contributors derive crucial new policy recommendations and offer fresh insights into areas including youth well-being, health, poverty, leaving the parental home, and qualifying for social security.

In the mid-1980s the world's industrialised economies entered their second decade of stagnant growth and mass unemployment paralleled only by the Great Slump. Neo-conservative policies, which replaced traditional Keynesian remedies, have been no more successful in halting the inexorable increase in unemployment: the stigma of failure to deal with unemployment has touched governments of all political extractions from Conservative to Liberal to Social-Democratic. New perspectives on the unemployment problem are needed and this book provides them.

This book examines the experiences of seasonal, migrant sugarcane workers in Brazil, analyzing the deep-seated inequalities pervasive in contemporary Brazil. Education, employment, income, health, and relative political power are forefront in this study of the living and working conditions of the transient population. Based on ten years of qualitative research dominated by in-depth interviews with migrant sugarcane workers, this project argues that the ills of the sugarcane industry are symptomatic of an overarching problem of unequal access to opportunities by all Brazilian citizens. The project is unique in its use of a single industry as an expression of the multifarious problems of socioeconomic, regional, and racial inequality. The author explores details of the labor migration experience with a central premise that the conditions are not a direct outcome of the industry, but rather a manifestation of fundamental inequalities rooted in Brazil's colonial history.

This book is a re-interpretation of labour market policy models from a gender perspective, providing an analysis of within-gender inequality and how these policies affect inequality. It sheds light on the internal and external challenges confronting different gendered political economies, with distinct constellations of adjustment problems and reform agendas to incorporate women into the labour market. As such, the book shows how female political mobilization can influence labour market policy-making process. The target audience of this book is made by researchers and postgraduate students in the disciplines of sociology, gender studies, political science, political economy, and practitioners working in the fields of welfare policies and gender labour market services.

This book provides a critical overview of the myriad literatures on "work," viewed not only as a product of the marketplace but also as a social and political construct. Drawing on theoretical and empirical contributions from sociology, history, economics, and organizational studies, the book brings together perspectives that too often remain balkanized, using each to explore the nature of work today. Outlining the fundamental principles that unite social science thinking about work, Vallas offers an original discussion of the major theoretical perspectives that inform workplace analysis, including Marxist, interactionist, feminist, and institutionalist schools of thought. Chapters are devoted to the labor process, to workplace flexibility, to gender and racial inequalities at work, and to the link between globalization and the structure of work and authority today. Major topics include the relation between work and identity; the relation between workplace culture and managerial control; and the performance of emotional labor within service occupations. This concise book will be invaluable to students as it explores a range of insights to make sense of pressing issues that drive the social scientific study of work, such as the social closure processes that exclude women and minorities from the most highly valued jobs, the role of social networks in accounting for disparities in the distribution of job rewards, and the struggle for global regimes that might regulate work in an era when neo-liberalism has reigned supreme.

China's remarkable economic transition and capacity for dynamic growth has stunned the world. Throughout the period of economic reform, China has been moving towards the creation of a labour market. The scale of this transformation is unprecedented. New economic incentives, vast labour migration, draconian retrenchment of state workers, and sharply rising wage inequality are all characteristic of this unique transition. Drawing on more than a decade of survey-based research, the authors systematically document and analyse this important transformation. They use economic and sociological theory, institutional analysis and political economy to fully explain the causes, pressures, obstacles and consequences of the move towards a labour market in China. It is argued that much progress has been made towards the creation of a labour market but that the process is far from complete.

This book explores the restructuring of the labour market and the opportunities that have resulted from economic globalization. The historical, political, geographical, and social relationships that female workers have had within the production process and the politics of work are examined to provide an understanding of the positioning of women within the global production system and the international division of employment. Unheard Voices: Women, Work and Political Economy of Global Production aims to give the reader an understanding of new workplace arrangements and the changing gendered patterns of work. The book is relevant to those interested in labour economics, the political economy, and gender studies.

This book brings together scholars from the fields of politics, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and economics, to explore pathways towards implementing a Basic Income in Australia. It is the first book of its kind to outline avenues for implementation of a basic income specifically for Australia and responds to a gap in the existing basic income literature and published titles to provide a distinct standpoint in the exploration of basic income within the Australian contemporary policy landscape. The first section of the book outlines some of the continuing substantive and philosophical issues regarding BI implementation. In the second section of the book, authors offer practical strategies and models for progressing BI in Australia.

This volume combines approaches from three disciplines - economics, sociology, and demography - and empirically analyzes the key aspects of the labor market and social demography processes in post-Soviet transitional societies while focusing on the gender perspective. Here, readers will find empirical studies on such countries as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The volume contributes to the literature by addressing the lack of academic empirical research on gender difference issues in the labor markets of post-Soviet countries as well as gender inequalities in fertility preferences, gender disparities among the youth and elderly, the gender pay gap, gender differences in employment, and female voices. The book brings together researchers of different disciplines from a variety of countries, distinguishing this project as international and interdisciplinary. The authors use the quantitative survey micro-data approach as well as the qualitative methods of interview data analysis to provide a comprehensive and detailed overview of the economic and social developments in the region regarding gender differences. The volume consists of three parts tackling the following topics: 1) gender differences and demography (family formation and fertility, youth and elderly employment); 2) gender differences and labor market (gender wage gap, motherhood wage penalty, gender differences among freelancers, and women in STEM science); and 3) gender differences, well-being, and gender equality attitudes (women's voices, women's collective actions, gender equality attitudes, and spending patterns of housewives).

Against the usual argument heard most frequently on the left, that there is no subject for a radical politics together with its form of political mobilization, there is - but in the absence of a radical leftist project, this subject has in the past transferred, and in many instances is still transferring, his/her support to the radical politics on offer from the other end of the ideological spectrum. The combination of on the one hand a globally expanding industrial reserve army, generating ever more intense competition in the labour markets of capitalism, and on the other the endorsement by many on the left not of class but rather of non-class identities espoused by the 'new' populist postmodernism, has fuelled what can only be described as a perfect storm, politically speaking.

Since the 1970s early exit from work has become a major challenge in modern welfare states. Governments, employers, and unions alike once thought of early retirement as a peaceful solution to the economic problems of mass unemployment and industrial restructuring. Today governments and international organizations advocate the postponement of retirement and an increase in activity among older workers. Comparing the USA, eight European countries, and Japan, this book demonstrates significant cross-national differences in early retirement across countries and over time. The study evaluates the impact of major variations in welfare regimes, production systems, and labor relations. It stresses the importance of the 'pull factor' of extensive welfare state provisions, particularly in Continental Europe; the 'push factor' of labor shedding strategies by firms, particularly in Anglo-American market economies; and the role of employers and worker representatives in negotiating retirement policies, particularly in coordinated market economies. Over the last three decades, early retirement has become a popular social policy and employment practice in the workplace, adding to the fiscal crises and employment problems of today's welfare states. Attempts to reverse early retirement policies have led to major reform debates. Unilateral government policies to cut back on social benefits have not had the expected employment results due to resistance from employers, workers, and their organizations. Successful reforms require the cooperation of both sides. This study provides comprehensive empirical analysis and a balanced approach to studying both the pull and the push factors affecting early exit from work needed to understand the development of early retirement regimes.

This volume contains 13 new and important never before published chapters covering aspects of the employer-employee relationship. The volume is focused at the academic audience, but is also geared to government and business policy makers worldwide. The chapters use data from the US, Europe, Asia, and the Middle-East to answer a number of vital labor market questions. These include: Why has part-time work increased so dramatically in the 15 European Union countries? What changes in retirement behavior will be expected as countries change pension laws? Why do firms often use fixed-term instead of long-term employment contracts? How do employee work interruptions affect occupational choice? Why do both employers and employees often prefer additional fringe benefits to wage increases? Do academic certifications really signal higher worker quality? How is an individual's work ethic influenced by others in residential neighborhoods? And, why do risky jobs often pay lower wages when one might expect employees need better remuneration to take dangerous jobs?

This project offers a comprehensive look at aging policies across East Asia, where a demographic dividend fuelled rapid growth and is now aging into a lower-speed economy. With a comprehensive look at numerous East Asian societies, including China, Japan, Korea, and other regions, the book is rich in comparative insights and strategies into what is effective for policymakers and employers. As the Asian century begins, this book will be an invaluable resource for economists, policymakers and demographers.

From Consent to Coercion examines the increasing assault against trade union rights and freedoms in Canada by federal and provincial governments. Centring the struggles of Canadian unionized workers, this book explores the diminution of the welfare state and the impacts that this erosion has had on broader working-class rights and standards of living. The fourth edition witnesses the passing of an era of free collective bargaining in Canada - an era in which the state and capital relied on obtaining the consent of workers and unions to act as subordinates in Canada's capitalist democracy. It looks at how the last twenty years have marked a return to a more open reliance of the state and capital on coercion - on force and on fear - to secure that subordination. From Consent to Coercion considers this conjuncture in the Canadian political economy amid growing precarity, poverty, and polarization in an otherwise indeterminate period of austerity. This important edition calls attention to the urgent task of rebuilding and renewing socialist politics - of thinking ambitiously and meeting new challenges with unique solutions to the left of social democracy.

This book focuses on informal workers and margins and seeks to advance the discourse on the concepts of 'work', 'workers' and 'margins'. By largely focusing on informal, non-formal and non-industrial sector workers where unionism, collective bargaining, and labour laws have little influence, the book promotes approaches to understanding alternate worker politics and organising practices. As such, it presents an alternative to conventional approaches to understanding workers in management and organisation studies. The book draws attention to the mechanisms of erasure implicit in disciplinary and governmental practices that allow the worker to remain invisible. By making the worker visible, it seeks to go beyond economistic and psychological approaches to work(ing) to understand the worker as a human being, with all the complexity, vulnerability and agency that status implies. Further, it seeks to go beyond worker victimhood to gather narratives of workers' worlds and the possibility of alternate worlds. The contributing authors bring together diverse perspectives from fields including industrial relations, environment, displacement, collective action, livelihoods, rural development, MSMEs, organisational behaviour and entrepreneurship to present a textured and multidimensional view of workers and their worlds.

The role of human capital has diversified considerably in the last 100 years. Today, the prevailing perception seeks a sustainable, integrated development which is based on the triptych of environment, economy, and society. In this mode of development, human capital has a positive effect on the economy, on social cohesion and optimal governance, as well as on the ecological footprint. This book studies the critical role of human capital in the Greek economy and its production structure. In doing so, this book analyzes the Greek labor market, employment, and structural changes, among other facets of this vibrant economy.

This book contributes to the ongoing discussion around so-called precarious or venture work, as the proportion of those employed by start-ups and thinly-capitalized firms continues to grow. Filling a gap in literature, the author explores the relationship between venture co-workers and examines how they cope with economic uncertainty, moving away from the previous focus on entrepreneurs and investors. Presenting empirical data from several life science start-ups in Sweden, this book illustrates the impact of institutional and regulatory changes in the finance industry, and demonstrates how these effects can ultimately reshape the meaning of employment.

This book is about labor income share, which measures the share of national income paid in wages. The global share of income going towards labor is declining, which suggests a more unequal distribution of income. This has sparked debates about fair distribution of personal incomes among academics and policymakers alike. This book joins the discussion by bringing together recent developments in theoretical and empirical research on labor income share and novel insights on the measurement of the labor income share. The aim of this book is to help design policies to reduce inequality and provide useful knowledge to academics, policymakers from government agencies, policy aides in research institutions and think tanks, and broader audiences from public and private organizations.

This book discusses the experiences of cooperative enterprises in India that have been operated by or influenced to a significant extent by trade unions. It describes the origins of these movements in India presenting a political-strategic view of their development and, in some cases, their decline. The book also presents case studies of groundbreaking social experiments conducted in India in which trade unions have formed cooperatives for production and service provision for the working class movement. It also offers lessons learned from previous social experiments and explains how to use them for future strategies in the working class movement by using primary research undertaken on trade union cooperatives in India. With globalization often given as a reason for the decline of trade unions and transformative social movements, this book demonstrates that where movements declined it was due to their own internal weaknesses, while presenting successful case studies of movements which have shown resilience in the face of globalization. The book also gives an extensive criticism of India's Self Employed Women's Association as a model of a depoliticized trade union cooperative. The main lesson of this book is that cooperatives represent a viable strategy to build working class power in the 21st century in India, and elsewhere.

This study examines the labor markets of the United States and Germany, developing a framework for the analysis of labor market dynamics based upon the dynamic flow analysis, instead of the conventional labor stock data. Until recently, labor market analysis was mainly based on stock data, which is a suitable data source for structural and aggregate phenomena but does not allow for the analysis of processes that are behind the net changes identified by stock data. To identify the dynamic elements in the labor market, information on flows is needed. In recent years flow data have become available, indicating that an enormous amount of that labor market mobility is occurring every month.

The use of flow data to analyze questions of the mismatch in the labor market and the underlying labor market dynamics has been suggested recently by scholars. The analysis presented in this study of the labor market in the U.S. and Germany uses these data to link dynamic concepts of labor market adjustment to flow data. This study will be of interest to scholars in labor economics and industrial organization.