Employers today are demanding more and more of employees' time. And from campaign barbecues to the blogosphere, workers across the United States are raising the same worried question: How can I get ahead at my job while making sure my family doesn't fall behind? Heather Boushey argues that resolving work-life conflicts is as vital for individuals and families as it is essential for realizing the country's productive potential. The federal government, however, largely ignores the connection between individual work-life conflicts and more sustainable economic growth. The consequence: business and government treat the most important things in life-health, children, elders-as matters for workers to care about entirely on their own time and dime. That might have worked in the past, but only thanks to a hidden subsidy: the American Wife, a behind-the-scenes, stay-at-home fixer of what economists call market failures. When women left the home-out of desire and necessity-the old system fell apart. Families and the larger economy have yet to recover. But change is possible. Finding Time presents detailed innovations to help Americans find the time they need and help businesses attract more productive workers. A policy wonk with working-class roots and a deep understanding of the stresses faced by families up and down the income ladder, Heather Boushey demonstrates with clarity and compassion that economic efficiency and equity do not have to be enemies. They can be reconciled if we have the vision to forge a new social contract for business, government, and private citizens.

This book provides an overview of current developments within feminist political economy, including reformulations of economic theory, historical and empirical research on the economic roles and status of women and people of color, as well as proposals for broadening the public policy agenda. Rather than offering a feminist critique of neoclassical economics, this volume presents feminist economics in dialogue with progressive economic theory and public policy. It differentiates itself further by addressing issues of class, race and sexuality in interaction with gender.

This book provides an overview of current developments within feminist political economy, including reformulations of economic theory, historical and empirical research on the economic roles and status of women and people of color, as well as proposals for broadening the public policy agenda. Rather than offering a feminist critique of neoclassical economics, this volume presents feminist economics in dialogue with progressive economic theory and public policy. It differentiates itself further by addressing issues of class, race and sexuality in interaction with gender.

With contributions by some of the top heterodox economists of our time, this book challenges readers to develop critical perspectives on a number of current topics, including foreign financial crises, health care, social security, and welfare reform. It explores alternative approaches to theoretical method, macro-and microeconomics, international trade and finance, economic development, and related policy issues.

With contributions by some of the top heterodox economists of our time, this book challenges readers to develop critical perspectives on a number of current topics, including foreign financial crises, health care, social security, and welfare reform. It explores alternative approaches to theoretical method, macro-and microeconomics, international trade and finance, economic development, and related policy issues.

A Financial Times Book of the Year "The strongest documentation I have seen for the many ways in which inequality is harmful to economic growth." -Jason Furman "A timely and very useful guide...Boushey assimilates a great deal of recent economic research and argues that it amounts to a paradigm shift." -New Yorker Do we have to choose between equality and prosperity? Decisions made over the past fifty years have created underlying fragilities in our society that make our economy less effective in good times and less resilient to shocks, such as today's coronavirus pandemic. Many think tackling inequality would require such heavy-handed interference that it would stifle economic growth. But a careful look at the data suggests nothing could be further from the truth-and that reducing inequality is in fact key to delivering future prosperity. Presenting cutting-edge economics with verve, Heather Boushey shows how rising inequality is a drain on talent, ideas, and innovation, leading to a concentration of capital and a damaging under-investment in schools, infrastructure, and other public goods. We know inequality is fueling social unrest. Boushey shows persuasively that it is also a serious drag on growth. "In this outstanding book, Heather Boushey...shows that, beyond a point, inequality damages the economy by limiting the quantity and quality of human capital and skills, blocking access to opportunity, underfunding public services, facilitating predatory rent-seeking, weakening aggregate demand, and increasing reliance on unsustainable credit." -Martin Wolf, Financial Times "Think rising levels of inequality are just an inevitable outcome of our market-driven economy? Then you should read Boushey's well-argued, well-documented explanation of why you're wrong." -David Rotman, MIT Technology Review

"Ambitious, fast-paced, fact-filled, and accessible." -Science "A compelling case for why achieving the right balance of time with our families...is vital to the economic success and prosperity of our nation... A must read." -Maria Shriver From backyard barbecues to the blogosphere, working men and women across the country are raising the same worried question: How can I get ahead at my job while making sure my family doesn't suffer? A visionary economist who has looked at the numbers behind the personal stories, Heather Boushey argues that resolving the work-life conflict is as vital for us personally as it is essential economically. Finding Time offers ingenious ways to help us carve out the time we need, while showing businesses that more flexible policies can actually make them more productive. "Supply and demand curves are suddenly 'sexy' when Boushey uses them to prove that paid sick days, paid family leave, flexible work schedules, and affordable child care aren't just cutesy women's issues for families to figure out 'on their own time and dime,' but economic issues affecting the country at large." -Vogue "Boushey argues that better family-leave policies should not only improve the lives of struggling families but also boost workers' productivity and reduce firms' costs." -The Economist

A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year "An intellectual excursion of a kind rarely offered by modern economics." -Foreign Affairs Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century is the most widely discussed work of economics in recent years. But are its analyses of inequality and economic growth on target? Where should researchers go from there in exploring the ideas Piketty pushed to the forefront of global conversation? A cast of leading economists and other social scientists-including Emmanuel Saez, Branko Milanovic, Laura Tyson, and Michael Spence-tackle these questions in dialogue with Piketty. "A fantastic introduction to Piketty's main argument in Capital, and to some of the main criticisms, including doubt that his key equation...showing that returns on capital grow faster than the economy-will hold true in the long run." -Nature "Piketty's work...laid bare just how ill-equipped our existing frameworks are for understanding, predicting, and changing inequality. This extraordinary collection shows that our most nimble social scientists are responding to the challenge." -Justin Wolfers, University of Michigan

Across the United States, increasing numbers of employers are breaking, bending, or evading long-established laws and standards designed to protect workers, from the minimum wage to job safety standards to the right to organize. This "gloves-off economy," no longer confined to a marginal set of sweatshops and fly-by-night small businesses, is sending shock waves into every corner of the low-wage labor market. In the process, employers who play by the rules are under growing pressure to follow suit, intensifying the search for low-cost business strategies across a wide range of industries and ratcheting up into ever higher reaches of the labor market. Although other books have touched on pieces of this problem, The Gloves-off Economy is the first to provide a comprehensive, integrated analysis and quite a disturbing one.This book examines a range of gloves-off practices, the workers who are affected by them, and strategies for enforcing workplace standards. The editors, four respected labor scholars, have brought together economists, sociologists, labor attorneys, union strategists, and other experts to offer varying perspectives on both the problem and the creative solutions currently being explored in a wide range of communities and industries. Annette Bernhardt, Heather Boushey, Laura Dresser, and Chris Tilly and the volume's other authors combine rigorous analysis with a stirring call to renew worker protections in the twenty-first century."