The global crisis has led to dramatic increases in unemployment rates over most of the countries of the OECD. This book provides alternative explanations of this phenomenon. Junankar begins with surveys of the labour market: labour demand, labour supply, and labour force participation. He argues that the growth of unemployment and long-term unemployment is mainly due to a lack of aggregated demand and not due to high unemployment benefits. Economics of the Labour Market shows that unemployment and long-term unemployment impose serious and significant costs on individuals, families, and society in general. Raja Junankar focuses on vital social issues arising from the malfunctioning of economies and this collection of essays tackles the real cost of unemployment.
The papers on development gathered together by Raja Junankar in this volume witness to a critically minded, technically equipped, free spirit tackling one of the most important issues with which relevant economic analysis should be concerned.' -- G.C. Harcourt, Visiting Professorial Fellow at UNSW, Australia 'Raja Junankar has been a leading figure in development economics for more than four decades. He has contributed important work from factor markets and agriculture, to the dynamics of technological change, to inequality and beyond. He has thought hard and deeply about the goals and processes of development, and this collection of papers is of great value.' -- Nicholas Stern, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK 'Throughout Raja Junankar's long career, his work has been marked by a healthy mix of history and mathematics as well as conventional and unorthodox approaches. All of these strands of thinking are exhibited in this volume. Newcomers to development economics and veterans alike will be able to benefit from it.' -- Gary Fields, Cornell University, USA 'This impressive book has a wide range, from a clear and succinct survey of the main trends in development economics to an in depth consideration of issues that still remain essential. It should be essential reading for students, researchers and policy makers.' -- Jayati Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India Informal labour markets are prevalent in developing countries and these provide poor conditions of work and living for a large majority of the population. The papers in this book study economic development from the perspective of social justice and economic effi ciency, exploring the role of land tenure and productivity in Indian agriculture. Junankar provides
An evaluation of the debate between the free-market & institutional approaches, based on a survey of the literature on the application of profit functions to agricultural production in less developed countries. The inadequacy of economic theory, the problems of econometric specification, data limitations, & the contradictory nature of the econometric results are identified. It is argued that the profit function is inappropriate on theoretical grounds, & that most economic applications do not support the model. Future work should take into account the role of class, power, & interlinkages in a historical context. Social & institutional factors, it is argued, are important in determining the behavior of peasant farmers. 1 Table, 39 References. Modified HA
Provides a critical review of the literature which focuses on the inadequacy of economic theory, the problems of econometric specification, data limitations, and the contradictory nature of the econometric results. (Abstract amended)
