ABSTRACT

While there are many economists in schools, government, unions, and non-profit organizations working in the institutionalst tradition, there has been no book that describes this tradition -- until now. Editors Champlin and Knoedler have brought together prominent labor economists, highly respected institutional economists, and newer scholars working on such compelling issues as immigration, wage discrimination, and living wages. Their essays portray the institutionalist tradition in labor as it exists today as well as its historical and theoretical origins. The result is a major contribution to the literature of labor economics, institutionalist economics, and the history of economic thought.

part |9 pages

Introduction

part I|92 pages

Historical and Theoretical Perspectives

chapter 4|25 pages

John R. Commons and His Students

The View from the End of the Twentieth Century

chapter 5|13 pages

Wages in the Public Interest

Insights from Thorstein Veblen and J.M. Clark

chapter 6|15 pages

U.S. Labor Reexamined, 1880-1930

Success, Ideology, and Reversal

part II|73 pages

Institutionalist Thought on Labor Since World War II

chapter 7|12 pages

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Institutionalist Theories of Wage Rates and Wage Differentials

chapter 9|15 pages

Dead Metaphors and Living Wages

On the Role of Measurement and Logic in Economic Debates

chapter 10|13 pages

How Is Labor Distinct from Broccoli?

Some Unique Characteristics of Labor and Their Importance for Economic Analysis and policy

chapter 11|17 pages

An Institutionalist Approach to Work Time

Is Labor Truly Irksome?

part III|73 pages

Institutionalist Analysis of Current Labor Issues

chapter 12|11 pages

Wage Discrimination in Context

Enlarging the Field of View

chapter 13|16 pages

Nonstandard Labor Through an Institutionalist Lens

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

chapter 15|11 pages

Retirement

Evolving Concepts and Institutions

chapter 16|10 pages

Organizing the Service Sector

From "Labor" to "Stakeholder" Unionism

part IV|64 pages

Social Justice

chapter 19|11 pages

Wealth and Power

Ethical Implications of Executive Compensation Since the 1980s

chapter 20|18 pages

Not Only Nike's Doing It

"Sweating" and the Contemporary Labor Market