The Handbook brings together a systematic review of the research topics, empirical findings, and methods that comprise modern labor economics. It serves as an introduction to what has been done in this field, while at the same time indicating possible future trends which will be important in both spheres of public and private decision-making.
Part I is concerned with the classic topics of labor supply and demand, the size and nature of the elasticities between the two, and their impact on the wage structure. This analysis touches on two fundamental questions: what are the sources of income inequality, and what are the disincentive effects of attempts to produce a more equal income distribution ?
The papers in Part II proceed from the common observation that the dissimilarity in worker skills and employer demands often tempers the outcomes that would be expected in frictionless labor markets. And the last section of the Handbook deals explicitly with the role of institutional structures (e.g. trade unions) that now form an important part of modern labor economics.
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Richard Layard is one of Britain's foremost applied economists. His work has had a profound impact on the policy debate in Britain and abroad. This book contains his most influential articles on education, equality and income distribution and on the lessons of economic transition in Eastern Europe. It is published along with a companion volume. "Educational Inequality" argues that lifetime inequality is the basic inequality we should worry about. In this context education is a powerful instrument of redistribution, as well as a national investment. Cash redistribution has efficiency costs which can be calculated, but it may also serve to discourage inefficient over-work arising from each person's efforts to earn more than his neighbor. A final series of essays is based on Layard's recent work on reform strategies in Russia and Poland. The book opens with Richard Layard's personal credo "Why I became an economist."

Richard Layard is one of Britain's foremost applied economists, whose work has had a profound impact on the policy debate in Britain and abroad. This book contains his most influential articles on education, equality and income distribution and on the lessons of economic transition in Eastern Europe. It is published along with a companion volume. Inequality argues that lifetime inequality is the basic inequality we should worry about. In this context education is a powerful instrument of redistribution, as well as a national investment. Cash redistribution has efficiency costs which can be calculated, but it may also serve to discourage inefficient over-work arising from each person's efforts to earn more than his neighbour. A final series of essays is based on Layard's recent work on reform strategies in Russia and Poland. The book opens with Richard Layard's personal credo 'Why I became an economist'.

The Handbook brings together a systematic review of the research topics, empirical findings, and methods that comprise modern labor economics. It serves as an introduction to what has been done in this field, while at the same time indicating possible future trends which will be important in both spheres of public and private decision-making.
Part 1 is concerned with the classic topics of labor supply and demand, the size and nature of the elasticities between the two, and their impact on the wage structure. This analysis touches on two fundamental questions: what are the sources of income inequality, and what are the disincentive effects of attempts to produce a more equal income distribution?
The papers in Part II proceed from the common observation that the dissimilarity in worker skills and employer demands often tempers the outcomes that would be expected in frictionless labor markets. And the last
section of the Handbook deals explicitly with the role of institutional structures (e.g. trade unions) that now form an important part of modern labor economics.