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74 results in Labour economics

Page 1 of 4

Out of Poverty
  • Sweatshops in the Global Economy
  • 2nd edition
  • Benjamin Powell
  • Published online:
    02 January 2025
    Print publication:
    09 January 2025
  • Out of Poverty provides a comprehensive defence of Third World sweatshops that does not put economic efficiency over people, but instead explores methods of improving the welfare of those in Third World countries. The author explains how sweatshops provide the best opportunity for workers; and how they play an important role in development, leading to better wages and working conditions. Using economic theory, empirical evidence, and historical investigation, Powell argues that the anti-sweatshop movement would harm the very workers it intends to help by creating less-desirable alternatives and undermining development. Including a new chapter on the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, this revised and expanded second edition also explores how sweatshop wages have changed and how poverty alleviation has progressed in countries with sweatshops in the late 1990s and early 2000s and how boycotting Uyghur forced labor in China differs other sweatshop boycotts.

Millennial Dreams in Oil Economies
  • Job Seeking and the Global Political Economy of Labour in Oman
  • Crystal A. Ennis
  • Published online:
    02 January 2025
    Print publication:
    09 January 2025
  • This book shifts the analysis of economic development in Oman from the traditional focus on oil to the perspective of labour. Focusing on the experiences of workers, jobseekers, and the governance of labour markets, Crystal A. Ennis offers a fresh perspective on regional development and rentier neoliberalism in the Gulf. Highlighting Oman's position within global capitalism, Ennis makes a compelling case for de-exceptionalising the Gulf, arguing that the region's labour markets are global and subject to similar pressures as other global economies. Moving beyond oil also allows Ennis to focus on the social conditions of Oman, where over sixty four percent of the population are under the age of thirty. Ennis offers a rich analysis of historical lineages of labour governance, class formation; and, following protests after 2011 as youth unemployment soared in the region, how authoritarian states react to public pressure and social unrest around perceived economic decline.

The Handbook of Labour Unions
  • Edited by Gregor Gall
  • Published by:
    Agenda Publishing
    Published online:
    19 December 2024
    Print publication:
    01 May 2024
  • Growing levels of income and wage inequality and the precaritization of many sections of the labour force have made labour unions as salient as ever. Although membership levels have decreased, they remain among the world's largest representative organizations and continue to play a significant role as vehicles for democracy, sustainable development and social justice.

    This handbook assembles an array of experts to critically engage with the debates and discussions about the role and purpose of unions and the many means by which they seek to attain them. The book provides insights into how unions can meet the challenges of structural changes in the labour market, including technological progress, the green agenda and the digital platform economy, and how they can better represent the needs of their members, in particular migrant, domestic and informal workers.

    The book is a valuable resource for industrial relations, labour economics, sociology of work, employment and labour law, history of trade unionism, working patterns and practices, workplace culture and workers' rights.

Monopsony in Labor Markets
  • Theory, Evidence, and Public Policy
  • Brianna L. Alderman, Roger D. Blair
  • Published online:
    08 February 2024
    Print publication:
    15 February 2024
  • The economics of monopsony power results in lower wages and other forms of compensation, as well as reduced employment. Wealth is transferred from workers to their employers. In addition, the employer's output is reduced, which leads to increased prices for consumers. Monopsony in Labor Markets demonstrates that elements of monopsony are pervasive and explores the available antitrust policy options. It presents the economic and empirical foundations for antitrust concerns and sets out the relevant antitrust policy. Building on this foundation, it examines collusion on compensation, collusive no-poaching agreements, and the inclusion of non-compete agreements in employment contracts. It also addresses the influence of labor unions, labor's antitrust exemption, which permits the exercise of countervailing power, and the consequences of mergers to monopsony. Offering a thorough explanation of antitrust policy, this book identifies the basic economic problems with monopsony in labor markets and explains the remedies currently available.

The Cultural Value of Work
  • Livelihoods and Migration in the World's Economies
  • David Griffith
  • Published online:
    14 July 2022
    Print publication:
    28 July 2022
  • Traditional wage labor has experienced a significant decline in industrialized countries over the past few decades. The spread of temporary work, the proliferation of subcontracting arrangements, the use of artificial intelligence (AI), the shipment of manufacturing jobs overseas, and the employment of foreign contract workers are among the key factors driving this decline. The result is a rise of labor insecurity and fragmentation among increasingly diverse forms of flexible labor arrangements. This book examines this important transformation by considering the impact of foreign contract labor on temporary migrant workers in their places of employment and home communities. It assesses work as a source of value in capitalist, reproductive, domestic, and cultural economics, and argues for a new, work-centric field of economics. Rich in examples, it is a sophisticated anthropological appreciation of the many forms that work can take and what these forms mean for the creation of value in people's lives.

Reverse Subsidies in Global Monopsony Capitalism
  • Gender, Labour, and Environmental Injustice in Garment Value Chains
  • Dev Nathan, Shikha Silliman Bhattacharjee, S. Rahul, Purushottam Kumar, Immanuel Dahagani, Sukhpal Singh, Padmini Swaminathan
  • Published online:
    21 January 2022
    Print publication:
    26 May 2022
  • This book provides a firm analytical base to discussions about injustice and the unequal distribution of gains from global production in the form of global monopsony capitalism. It utilizes the concept of reverse subsidies as the purchase of gendered labour and environmental services below their costs of production in garment value chains in India and other garment producing countries, such as Bangladesh and Cambodia. Environmental services, such as freshwater for garment manufacture and land for cotton production, are degraded by overuse and untreated waste disposal. The resulting higher profits from the low prices of garments are captured by global brands, using their monopsony position, with few buyers and myriad sellers, in the market. This book links the concept of reverse subsidies with those of injustice, inequality and sustainability in global production.

Garments without Guilt?
  • Global Labour Justice and Ethical Codes in Sri Lankan Apparels
  • Kanchana N. Ruwanpura
  • Published online:
    15 December 2021
    Print publication:
    16 June 2022
  • Sri Lanka's apparel sector holds an enviable place in the imaginary of its competitors for having a niche position amongst global retailers, given its claims of producing 'garments without guilt'. Exploitative labour conditions are not part of the industry's portfolio – ethicality, eco-friendly production and unblemished conditions of work are. Sri Lanka's transition away from a protracted ethnic war has meant that the industry portrays itself as investing in the former war zone to create jobs without reflection on how its vaunted mantle, the deployment of ethical codes effectively, themselves may be under duress. This book uses an analytical framing informed by labour and feminist perspectives to explore how labour struggles in the post-1977 period in Sri Lanka provided important resistance to capitalist processes and continue to shape the industry both within and outside of the shop floor. It studies contextual moments in the country's recent history to rupture the dominant narrative and record the centrality of labour in the success of the country's apparel industry.

A 'Risky' Business?
  • Ukrainian Migrant Women in Warsaw’s Domestic Work Sector
  • Martha Kindler
  • Published by:
    Amsterdam University Press
    Published online:
    20 January 2021
    Print publication:
    30 January 2012
  • This book is about migration as a form of risk-taking. Based on Ukrainian women's experiences in the Polish domestic work sector, it presents a new approach to analyse movements of female migrants responding to the demand for household labour around the world. Risks involved in migration and in migrant domestic work are accounted for in detail alongside an analysis of the migration decision-making processes. This study shows how social ties and migrant institutions effectively reduce the otherwise radical asymmetry of power between an individual migrant, the state and an employer. A Risky Business? brings to light the complex risk structures of migrants' activities and their sophisticated responses to them. With their innovative strategies, migrants challenge government-imposed constraints and thus reduce the risks of migration.

Wretched Refuse?
  • The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions
  • Alex Nowrasteh, Benjamin Powell
  • Published online:
    10 December 2020
    Print publication:
    17 December 2020
  • Economic arguments favoring increased immigration restrictions suggest that immigrants undermine the culture, institutions, and productivity of destination countries. But is this actually true? Nowrasteh and Powell systematically analyze cross-country evidence of potential negative effects caused by immigration relating to economic freedom, corruption, culture, and terrorism. They analyze case studies of mass immigration to the United States, Israel, and Jordan. Their evidence does not support the idea that immigration destroys the institutions responsible for prosperity in the modern world. This nonideological volume makes a qualified case for free immigration and the accompanying prosperity.

Mobility as Capability
  • Women in the Indian Informal Economy
  • Nikhila Menon
  • Published online:
    24 May 2020
    Print publication:
    05 August 2021
  • This book highlights accounts of women workers to capture the domains of gendered mobility, which challenges the exalted status conferred on women in the Kerala model of development. It contests and deconstructs the development discourse which considers women's work mobility as an indicator of autonomy and agency using Capability Approach. The concept of 'transformational mobility' and its measurement introduced in the book advances the understanding of mobility, autonomy and agency and the intersectionality in the context of gender and work. Through an in-depth exploration of lived experiences of informal women workers the author illustrates how patriarchal structures are shaped and reinforced by work places, markets and the state. The central question is - can we steer development policies to facilitate collective capabilities for women where informal work arrangements are becoming the norm?

Strategic Compensation and Talent Management
  • Lessons for Managers
  • Jed DeVaro
  • Published online:
    23 March 2020
    Print publication:
    02 April 2020
  • Written for current and aspiring managers, this textbook guides readers through the core components of compensation and puts them in the manager's chair, challenging them to apply their understanding to solve business problems such as attracting, managing, and retaining company talent. The book's central theme, supported by extensive treatment of compensating differentials, is that compensation is heavily driven by market competition. The coverage also includes analytics, negotiation and bargaining, wage theft, and non-profits and small businesses, as well as a detailed treatment of stock options. Case studies are included to demonstrate the principles in practice, and 'lessons for managers' in each chapter provide practical advice and takeaways. A rich package of online teaching and learning materials, including teaching slides, sample syllabi, additional case studies, and a test bank is also provided to support teachers and students.

Monopsony Capitalism
  • Power and Production in the Twilight of the Sweatshop Age
  • Ashok Kumar
  • Published online:
    15 January 2020
    Print publication:
    29 October 2020
  • This book explores the combination of capital's changing composition and labour's subjective agency to examine whether the waning days of the 'sweatshop' have indeed begun. Focused on the garment and footwear sectors, it introduces a universal logic that governs competition and reshapes the chain. By analysing workers' collective action at various sites of production, it observes how this internal logic plays out for labour who are testing the limits of the social order, stretching it until the seams show. By examining the most valorised parts of underdeveloped sectors, one can see where capital is going and how it is getting there. These findings contribute to ongoing efforts to establish workers' rights in sectors plagued by poverty and powerlessness, building fires and collapses. With this change and a capable labour movement, there's hope yet that workers may close the gap.

Mobilities of Labour and Capital in Asia
  • Edited by Preet S. Aulakh, Philip F. Kelly
  • Published online:
    24 December 2019
    Print publication:
    06 February 2020
  • This book explores the mobilities of capital and labour in the contemporary global economy, with a particular focus on Asia. Using an analytical framework around three dimensions related to the forms, institutions, and spatialities of mobility, the chapters use a variety of sub-national, national and transnational sites within and beyond Asia to examine the interrelationships between mobilities of capital and labour at multiple levels of analyses. The book foregrounds the intricate and persistent linkages between the two mobilities, which have played an important role in capitalist development, but have hitherto mostly been analyzed as separate processes.

The Cambridge Handbook of U.S. Labor Law for the Twenty-First Century
  • Edited by Richard Bales, Charlotte Garden
  • Published online:
    01 November 2019
    Print publication:
    05 December 2019
  • Over the last fifty years in the United States, unions have been in deep decline, while income and wealth inequality have grown. In this timely work, editors Richard Bales and Charlotte Garden - with a roster of thirty-five leading labor scholars - analyze these trends and show how they are linked. Designed to appeal to those being introduced to the field as well as experts seeking new insights, this book demonstrates how federal labor law is failing today's workers and disempowering unions; how union jobs pay better than nonunion jobs and help to increase the wages of even nonunion workers; and how, when union jobs vanish, the wage premium also vanishes. At the same time, the book offers a range of solutions, from the radical, such as a complete overhaul of federal labor law, to the incremental, including reforms that could be undertaken by federal agencies on their own.

Does Immigration Increase Crime?
  • Migration Policy and the Creation of the Criminal Immigrant
  • Francesco Fasani, Giovanni Mastrobuoni, Emily G. Owens, Paolo Pinotti
  • Published online:
    15 August 2019
    Print publication:
    05 September 2019
  • Do migrants lead to an increase of crime rates in their host societies? This highly contentious issue has become a mainstay in the political debate and a lightning rod for the galvanization of populist movements, despite often lacking any empirical support. In this game-changing book, the authors examine what the existing data actually says, and provide their own novel evidence on the immigration-crime connection. Taking the unusual approach of analysing the subject from an economic perspective, the authors build on the pioneering work of Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker to construct their innovative arguments. By considering evidence from different countries, with a focus on establishing causal relationships, the authors are able to analyse not only if migrants do cause crime but also whether migration policies can play a role in shaping incentives for migrants to engage in crime. This book will appeal to students and academics across the social sciences, as well as citizens interested in this topical issue.

Growth and Inequality
  • The Contrasting Trajectories of India and Brazil
  • Alexandre de Freitas Barbosa, Maria Cristina Cacciamali, Gerry Rodgers
  • Published online:
    02 August 2019
    Print publication:
    19 July 2017
  • Inequality is a global concern, for its social and human consequences, and its impact on the pace and pattern of economic growth. In India and Brazil, this issue has received increasing attention in recent years. In Brazil, inequality grew until the 1980s, when it reached extreme levels, but has since been declining, especially during the first decade of the twenty-first century. In India, inequality showed little change up to the 1980s, but has since been rising. These differences result from a variety of economic, social and political factors, which are examined in depth in this comparative study. The book examines inequality in overall distributions of income and expenditure, and disparities across gender, region, caste, race, and access to education. It compares the experience of the two countries, and draws conclusions on the types of policy frameworks and institutions that might lead to a more equitable pattern of growth.

Limits of Bargaining
  • Capital, Labour and the State in Contemporary India
  • Achin Chakraborty, Subhanil Chowdhury, Supurna Banerjee, Zaad Mahmood
  • Published online:
    05 June 2019
    Print publication:
    16 May 2019
  • Limits of Bargaining is an original addition to the political economy analysis of capital-labour relations in the organised industrial sector in the context of economic liberalisation in India. It analyses the dynamics of the capital-labour bargaining process in the context of the changing nature of the state and market as a result of adoption of policies of liberalisation and globalisation for the last two and half decades. It examines the nature of collective bargaining and analyses the underlying structural-political conditions that shape the capital-labour relations. Based on original empirical material from West Bengal, a state long considered pro-labour, the book presents bargaining between capital and labour as endogenous to the interplay of the triad of the market, technology and the institutions of the state. It illustrates everyday interactions between labour and management, different unions and outside actors that shape collective bargaining, and highlights the negotiation, appropriations and compromises that shape bargaining at the operational level.

Gender and Work in Global Value Chains
  • Capturing the Gains?
  • Stephanie Barrientos
  • Published online:
    26 April 2019
    Print publication:
    23 May 2019
  • This book focuses on the changing gender patterns of work in a global retail environment associated with the rise of contemporary retail and global sourcing. This has affected the working lives of hundreds of millions of workers in high-, middle- and low-income countries. The growth of contemporary retail has been driven by the commercialised production of many goods previously produced unpaid by women within the home. Sourcing is now largely undertaken through global value chains in low- or middle-income economies, using a 'cheap' feminised labour force to produce low-price goods. As women have been drawn into the labour force, households are increasingly dependent on the purchase of food and consumer goods, blurring the boundaries between paid and unpaid work. This book examines how gendered patterns of work have changed and explores the extent to which global retail opens up new channels to leverage more gender-equitable gains in sourcing countries.

Global Value Chains and Development
  • Redefining the Contours of 21st Century Capitalism
  • Gary Gereffi
  • Published online:
    09 November 2018
    Print publication:
    10 September 2018
  • Globalization has transformed how nations, firms and workers compete in the international economy over the past half century. This book by Gary Gereffi, one of the founders of the global value chains (GVC) framework, traces the emergence of arguably the most influential approach used to analyze globalization and its impacts. It studies the conceptual foundations of GVC analysis, the twin pillars of 'governance' and 'upgrading', along with detailed case studies of China, Mexico and other emerging economies as main beneficiaries of export-oriented industrialization, and addresses potential solutions to the deleterious impact of globalization on workers and communities.

A European Social Union after the Crisis
  • Edited by Frank Vandenbroucke, Catherine Barnard, Geert De Baere
  • Published online:
    28 September 2017
    Print publication:
    24 August 2017
  • Today, many people agree that the EU lacks solidarity and needs a social dimension. This debate is not new, but until now the notion of a 'social Europe' remained vague and elusive. To make progress, we need a coherent conception of the reasons behind, and the agenda for, not a 'social Europe', but a new idea: a European Social Union. We must motivate, define, and demarcate an appropriate notion of European solidarity. We must also understand the legal and political obstacles, and how these can be tacked. In short, we need unequivocal answers to questions of why, what, and how: on that basis, we can define a clear-cut normative and institutional concept. That is the remit of this book: it provides an in-depth interdisciplinary examination of the rationale and the feasibility of a European Social Union. Outstanding scholars and top-level practitioners reflect on obstacles and solutions, from an economic, social, philosophical, legal, and political perspective.

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