Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

[Review Of The Book Labor Regulation In The Global Economy], Gary Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] This is a practical and useful volume on labor standards in today’s highly globalized world. An introduction is followed by ten chapters, some of them general, talking about the ILO or the WTO, and some more specific, focusing on the United States and Europe. The general chapters cover the ILO, corporate codes of conduct, efforts to introduce labor standards into the multilateral trade regime, arguments for and against labor standards in trade, and policy implications. The specific chapters cover U.S. initiatives on child labor, labor standards in the bilateral trade agreements entered into by the United States and the …

[Review Of The Book Forecasting Retirement Needs And Retirement Wealth], Gary Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] This volume enables researchers to learn about some of the latest research findings on specific issues. It is not the place to seek an introduction to current thinking on retirement, pensions, and Social Security—the papers are too narrowly focused for that. But for current or would-he pension specialists, this volume and the larger series of which it is a part are indispensable resources.

Reforming Social Security And Social Safety Net Programs In Developing Countries, Gary Fields, Olivia Mitchell

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Developing country governments around the world, as well as the development agencies advising them, have become increasingly alarmed about the cost of social security systems and social safety net programs and economic inefficiencies resulting from these programs' operation. Taken together, both social security and safety net programs may be jointly referred to as "economic security programs". In this paper we identify the main sources of economic insecurity facing developing country populations, highlight the ways in which existing social safety net and social security programs meet (or fail to meet) these risks, and draw out some high-priority reforms required to …

Labor Standards, Economic Development, And International Trade, Gary Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Higher real earnings at the fullest possible level of employment are the goals of those of us who work in the labor field. This paper addresses the role of labor standards in helping to achieve those goals. The United States government has two sets of interests in labor standards. The Department of Labor is supposed to "foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment." The Agency for International Development seeks to "help the poor toward a better life" in a …

But That’S Not What Economic Mobility Is!, Gary Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] How many times have you attended a talk or read a paper on economic mobility and thought, “What you are talking about is not what I am interested in”? Not only do different people have different ideas about what economic mobility is, but they have different clear ideas about what economic mobility is. The purpose of this paper is to present the essential features of the different economic mobility concepts that are found in the literature.

Earning Their Way Out Of Poverty (Outline And Sample Chapter), Gary Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] According to the latest figures, today an estimated 3.1 billion people still live in absolute poverty, essentially all of them in the low- and middle-income countries of Asia, Latin America, and Africa and none of them in what are traditionally called the “developed economies” of North America (excluding Mexico), Western Europe, and selected parts of Asia and Oceania. This book is about how the poor live and work and what actions the world community could take to improve poor people’s earning opportunities as a central component of a multifaceted program aimed at ending the scourge of absolute economic misery.

A Brief Review Of The Literature On Earnings Mobility In Developing Countries, Gary Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] The literature on income and earnings mobility falls into three categories:

1. Macro mobility studies address the entire economy. They ask the question, how much income mobility and/or earnings mobility is there in the economy?
2. A second group of studies, micro mobility studies, examines patterns of income and earnings change over time for different individuals or groups. They ask the questions, which individuals or households experience movements of what magnitudes, and what are the correlates and determinants of these movements?
3. Within the micro mobility studies are a number of studies that look specifically at poverty dynamics …

A Guide To Multisector Labor Market Models, Gary Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] This is a paper on labor markets. Why are labor markets important to economic development? Many individuals and institutions, including the World Bank and the regional development banks, seek “a world free of poverty.” Broadly speaking, those who are poor are poor because 1) they earn little from the work they do, 2) the societies in which they live are too poor to provide them with substantial goods and services by virtue of their citizenship or residency, and 3) the poor are not permitted to move to richer countries. Thus, anti-poverty efforts can be focused on 1) helping people …

Income Mobility In China: Main Questions, Existing Evidence, And Proposed Studies, Gary Fields, Shuang Zhang

Gary S Fields

The international literature presents studies of macro mobility (how much income mobility is there in the economy?) and micro mobility (which individuals experience movements of what magnitudes and what are the correlates of these movements?). In China too, both macro mobility and micro mobility studies have been conducted. This paper reviews the existing Chinese studies and proposes additional new work that can be carried out using Chinese panel data sets.