The Political Economy of Labour

The field of labour economics and industrial relations is no stranger to controversy. Among the issues on which public and academic opinion is deeply divided are the economic consequences of trade unions; the causes of low productivity in British industry; the origins of labour market segmentation; sexual and racial discrimination and the dynamics, forms and implications of economic restructuring and labour market flexibility. This book investigates these and other areas of controversy in the light of competing theoretical perspectives on the nature and changing forms of production and labour markets within advanced capitalist economies. In assessing the recent research literature, the author identifies three broad theoretical traditions: modern neoclassical labour economics; institutionalist perspectives; and the growing body of literature which recalls the theoretical concerns and analytical methods of the classical political economists and Marx. The conceptual elements of each of these approaches are revealed and critically assessed, and their relevance to an understanding of the changing position of labour within contemporary economies is evaluated.
Arguing that the conceptualization of labour within neoclassical economics is seriously limited, and that the institutional approach is weakly grounded in theory, the book suggests that many valuable insights can be gained from recent work based on the classical and Marxist tradition.