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Full-Text Articles in Labor Relations

How Demanding Should Equality Of Opportunity Be, And How Much Have We Achieved?, Valentino Dardanoni, Gary S. Fields, John E. Roemer, Maria Laura Sánchez Puerta Dec 2009

How Demanding Should Equality Of Opportunity Be, And How Much Have We Achieved?, Valentino Dardanoni, Gary S. Fields, John E. Roemer, Maria Laura Sánchez Puerta

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] This chapter proposes tests of various notions of equality of opportunity and applies them to intergenerational income data for the United States and Britain. Agreement is widespread that equality of opportunity holds in a society if the chances that individuals have to succeed depend only on their own efforts and not on extraneous circumstances that may inhibit or expand those chances. What is contentious, however, is what constitutes "effort" and "circumstances." Most people, we think, would say that the social connections of an individual's parents would be included among circumstances: equality of opportunity is incomplete if some individuals get …


A Public Lecture: Labour Markets And Economic Development, Gary S. Fields Dec 2009

A Public Lecture: Labour Markets And Economic Development, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] I want to put forward three propositions to you based on decades of work in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. First, economic development can be (but need not be) a win-win-win situation - for businesses, for individuals and groups of individuals, and for governments and non- governmental organisations (NGOs). Second, the labour market can (but need not) serve as an effective mechanism for contributing to economic growth and for transmitting the gains from economic growth. And third, in both of these areas, whether a country experiences the more favorable set of outcomes or the less favorable ones reflects a) …


Re-Visioning The Future Of Work: Towards A New Mindset, Colin C. Williams Nov 2009

Re-Visioning The Future Of Work: Towards A New Mindset, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.


Dualism In The Labor Market: A Perspective On The Lewis Model After Half A Century, Gary S. Fields Nov 2009

Dualism In The Labor Market: A Perspective On The Lewis Model After Half A Century, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

This paper asks how the Lewis model might be viewed from the perspective of economic science half a century later. Many of the core propositions remain intact, some might be amplified, and a small number might be revised.


Household Income Dynamics: A Four Country Story, Gary S. Fields, Paul L. Cichello, Samuel Freije, Marta Menéndez, David Newhouse Nov 2009

Household Income Dynamics: A Four Country Story, Gary S. Fields, Paul L. Cichello, Samuel Freije, Marta Menéndez, David Newhouse

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] In this paper, we analyse the dynamics of household per capita incomes using longitudinal data from Indonesia, South Africa, Spain and Venezuela. We find that in all four countries reported initial income and job changes of the head are consistently the most important variables in accounting for income changes, overall and for initially poor households. We also find that changes in income are more important than changes in household size and that changes in labour earnings are more important than changes in other sources of household income.


The Microeconomics Of Changing Income Distribution In Malaysia, Gary S. Fields, Sergei Soares Nov 2009

The Microeconomics Of Changing Income Distribution In Malaysia, Gary S. Fields, Sergei Soares

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] This study uses data from Malaysia's Household Income and Expenditure Surveys to quantify the importance of different factors in accounting for the changes in Malaysia's income distribution between 1984 and 1989 ("Period 1") and between 1989 and 1997 ("Period 2"). These particular years were chosen, because 1997 is the most recent available survey, 1984 is the earliest survey comparable to 1997, and 1989 is important for three reasons: 1. Income inequality fell until 1989 and rose thereafter. 2. Economic growth was slow in 1984-89 and fast in 1989-97. and 3. 1989 is the closest year to the beginning of …


Decent Work And Development Policies, Gary S. Fields Nov 2009

Decent Work And Development Policies, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Welcoming the shift to outcomes which he perceives in the ILO's focus on decent work, the author explores the major issues thus raised. He discusses how to make the notion of decent work more precise in operational terms, and how to develop an integrated approach to economic and social policy in the decent work context, before formulating an empirical approach to assessing the effects of economic growth on decent work. Finally, he outlines a structure for the ILO's planned country reviews of progress towards decent work.


[Review Of Pay Without Performance: The Unfulfilled Promise Of Executive Compensation], Kevin F. Hallock Aug 2009

[Review Of Pay Without Performance: The Unfulfilled Promise Of Executive Compensation], Kevin F. Hallock

Kevin F Hallock

[Excerpt] Every once in a while someone comes out with an important book concerning corporate governance or executive compensation. Like Aldolf A. Berle and Gardiner C. Means's The Modern Corporation and Private Property (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1932) and Graef S. Crystal's In Search of Excess: The Overcompensation of American Executives (New York: W.W. Norton, 1991), Bebchuk and Fried's new book is thought-provoking and interesting. It is a very important book and should be read not just by those interested in executive pay or corporate governance but by anyone interested in how corporations work.


[Review Of Personnel Economics In Imperfect Labour Markets], Kevin F. Hallock Aug 2009

[Review Of Personnel Economics In Imperfect Labour Markets], Kevin F. Hallock

Kevin F Hallock

Excerpt] This book is an attempt to consolidate what we know about Personnel Economics by focusing on Personnel Economics in Imperfect Labor Markets. Even on the first page of the book, the author is clear about this mission. In particular he notes that "The view of personnel economics analyzed in this book is based on two key properties of... labour markets: labour markets are imperfect and jobs are associated to [sic] rents; labour market institutions interact with personnel policies. Notably, wages are partly set outside the firm-worker pair (minimum wages and collective agreements are widespread)" and "job termination policies are …


Ensuring A Decent Global Workplace: Labor Rights Belong In Trade Agreements, Lance A. Compa May 2009

Ensuring A Decent Global Workplace: Labor Rights Belong In Trade Agreements, Lance A. Compa

Lance A Compa

[Excerpt] Linking workers' rights to international trade is an idea whose time has come and stayed, despite the best efforts of free trade ideologues to chase it away. In looming congressional debates about "fast track" negotiating authority, the Bush administration and Congress confront powerful demands from workers, trade unionists and a wider public for rules protecting human rights and labor rights, not just corporate investments, in trade agreements.


'Mapping Unions In The 'New Member States'' In Baldachinno, G., Trade Unions In Malta. Brussels, Etui, Pp.5-10., Kurt Vandaele Jan 2009

'Mapping Unions In The 'New Member States'' In Baldachinno, G., Trade Unions In Malta. Brussels, Etui, Pp.5-10., Kurt Vandaele

Kurt Vandaele

No abstract provided.


The Ghent-System, Temporary Unemployment And The Belgian Trade Unions Since The Economic Downturn, Kurt Vandaele Jan 2009

The Ghent-System, Temporary Unemployment And The Belgian Trade Unions Since The Economic Downturn, Kurt Vandaele

Kurt Vandaele

No abstract provided.


Book Reviews. Economic Adjustment And Political Transformation In Small States By Erik Jones, Kurt Vandaele Jan 2009

Book Reviews. Economic Adjustment And Political Transformation In Small States By Erik Jones, Kurt Vandaele

Kurt Vandaele

No abstract provided.


Evaluating The Extent And Nature Of 'Envelope Wages' In The European Union: A Geographical Analysis, Colin C. Williams Dec 2008

Evaluating The Extent And Nature Of 'Envelope Wages' In The European Union: A Geographical Analysis, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

To evaluate the spatialities of the illegal wage practice where employers pay their declared employees both an official declared wage and an undeclared ‘envelope’ wage so as to avoid tax liabilities, a 2007 survey conducted in 27 European Union (EU) member states is reported. The finding is that 5% of employees received envelope wages which amount on average to some two-fifths of their wage packet. Revealing how, although heavily concentrated in a small group of East-Central European nations, this wage practice is nonetheless ubiquitous, the paper concludes by discussing how this practice might be tackled.


Measures To Tackle Undeclared Work In 27 European Countries, Colin C. Williams Dec 2008

Measures To Tackle Undeclared Work In 27 European Countries, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

Review of range and type of policy measures used for tackling undeclared work in 27 European Union member states and an evaluation fo their transferability to other nations, sectors and/or occupations


Repaying Favours: Unravelling The Nature Of Community Exchnage In An English Locality, Colin C. Williams Dec 2008

Repaying Favours: Unravelling The Nature Of Community Exchnage In An English Locality, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

A recurring assumption in community development has been that when material support is provided on a one-to-one basis to the extended family or social and neighbourhood networks, such favours are repaid by offering help in return rather than money. Reporting a study of the community exchanges of 120 households in an English locality, however, the finding is that well over one-third of these were repaid using money. The outcome is a call for the community development literature to recognise and respond to the existence of this sphere of ‘paid favours’ which demonstrates how monetary transactions can be neither market-like nor …