Edward Elgar Publishing Labour Markets, Institutions and Inequality: Building Just Societies in the 21st Century

Labour market institutions, including collective bargaining, the regulation of employment contracts and social protection policies, are instrumental for improving the well-being of workers, their families and society. In many countries, these institutions have been eroded, whilst in other countries they do not exist at all. Labour Markets, Institutions and Inequality includes empirical case studies, from both developed and developing countries, which examine the role of institutions in ensuring equitable income distribution. The volume discusses the effect of macroeconomic, labour and social policies on inequality, highlighting how specific groups such as women, migrants and younger workers are affected by labour market institutions. Expert contributions demonstrate that in order to reduce inequality, countries must strengthen their labour market institutions through comprehensive policy formulation. Review 'Good governance, social stabilization and economic justice are not luxuries that weigh down and impede the process of development. They are the essence of development itself. They are what distinguish the successful countries from everyone else. At some level, we all know this. This book provides the documentation required to carry the point. For this reason, those who would replace the great economic institutions of the past century with fanciful phrases about "self-reliance" and "participation" are not in the vanguard of some new form of progress. They are merely the wrecking crew. Much will depend on whether they can be stopped. In this book, Janine Berg and her ILO colleagues make a valuable and timely contribution to that end - and therefore to the cause of economic justice.' --- From the foreword by James K. Galbraith 'A defining feature of recent decades has been the rise in income inequality within many, but certainly not all, countries, and perhaps most spectacularly in the US and UK. The reigning explanation remains the orthodox story that it's all about supply and demand - the failure of education to keep up in the "race" with technological advances - a story in which labor market institutions, bargaining power and social norms enter either as bit players or are ignored altogether. A powerful and welcome antidote, the essays in this fine book make the case that strong institutions are not only "The Building blocks of Just Societies", but can be, if well-designed, fully consistent with high employment, dynamic economies.' --- David R. Howell, New School of Social Research, US 'Deregulation and self regulation of markets has not only led to the 2008 financial crisis but also to a greater disparity between what workers and capital owners take home from their national income. This worrying trend of growing inequality has become so obvious that it was the major theme of the captains of industry annual winter outing in Davos in January 2014. In this well researched and argued volume Janine Berg and her colleagues show convincingly how neglect for distributional concerns and equitable growth policies in macroeconomic policies and labour market policies led to this worrying trend, why a refocusing on distributional issues and equitable growth policies is urgently needed and what needs to be done to achieve that. A must read for concerned politicians, industrialist, trade unions and researchers.' --- Rolph van der Hoeven, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, The Hague, the Netherlands About the Author Edited by Janine Berg, Senior Development Economist, International Labour Office, Switzerland