Modern Labour Economics

Labour economics as a discipline has changed dramatically in recent years. Gone are the days of a "job for life". These days, firms and employees are part of a less regulated, more fluid, and more international labour market. Knowledge, training, human resource development and human capital are all major factors on the contemporary scene.

This new textbook is the first properly international textbook to reflect these swingeing changes. Its key areas of concentration include:

• the increasing importance of human capital including education and occupational choice
• the major subdivision of personnel economics including economic inactivity and absenteeism
• comparative cross country studies and the impact of globalization and migration on national labour markets
• equal opportunities and issues of discrimination on the basis of race, gender and disability
• conflict at work, including both strikes and, uniquely, individual disputes.

Other issues explored include the supply and demand of labour, wages, the current role of trade unions, bargaining and conflict, and working time. The book is written in a clear, accessible way with some mathematical exposition, reflecting the text’s grounding in current microeconomic theory. The book also contains case studies designed to illuminate theoretical concepts and exercises and discussion questions to test the students understanding of the various concepts outlined in the text.

Peter Sloane is Emeritus Professor of Economics at Swansea University, UK, where he was the Director of the Welsh Economy Labour Market Evaluation and Research Centre. He is also Adjunct Professor at the National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University, Australia. Inter alia he is author of Labour Economics, Employment Equity and Affirmative Action: An International Comparison and The Economics of Sport.

Paul L. Latreille is Professor of Management at the University of Sheffield, UK. He is an expert on workplace conflict and its resolution, including Employment Tribunals and mediation, vocational training, disability and inactivity.

Nigel O’Leary is a Reader at Swansea University and an Associate Professor at the National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University, Australia. He has published extensively in international journals in the areas of the economics of discrimination, educational economics, trade unions and labour market attachment.