Search Results

This chapter begins by providing an overview of the basic arguments of the dual labour market approach and of previous attempts to construct a formal analytical framework, and, by drawing attention to some important but neglected points, proposes a synthesis with which to understand the working of the labour market. Section 5.1 examines various empirical criticisms of the neoclassical theory, and discusses the need for a new analytical framework as well as the features that must be incorporated into such a framework; the section also serves as an introduction to the theoretical discussion that follows. Section 5.2 considers the determinants of the division of labour and of technology that are treated as exogenous in the neoclassical theory from a historical and political‐economy viewpoint, and also briefly surveys the historical process that gave rise to the internal labour markets of firms ( the key concept in this approach). Section 5.3 discusses the content of the dual labour market hypothesis, and Sect. 5.4 constructs a model of the economy with dual labour markets and analyses the determinants of earnings distribution in the long run, also examining points of controversy with the neoclassical approach. Section 5.5 presents an analytical framework embodying the theory of incentive‐dependent exchange, derives implications on the allocation of employment opportunities and the distribution of earnings, and discusses in what respects this theory competes with the neoclassical theory.

What kind of contribution will the theories developed so far make to an understanding of the working of the labour market? From among the various important topics concerning the Japanese labour market, this chapter focuses on its dualistic structure, which has for years caught the attention of many researchers. The chapter consists of two sections. Section 6.1 reviews the meaning of the dualistic wage structure in Japan, and discusses the theoretical rationale for its emergence. Section 6.2 is devoted to an empirical test of whether the entry fee/bond mechanism believed to have the role of removing the entry barrier to the internal labour market actually operated in Japan, by examining the cohort wage profiles of male new school graduates and their movement over time––the supposition being that, if such a mechanism were ever to operate, it would do so by way of generating a seniority wage element that would necessarily be anti‐cyclical in nature. The focus is placed on the new school graduates market because it is the principal port of entry into the internal labour market in Japan, and has previously been regarded as a very competitive one.

Investigates differences and similarities in the school-to-work transition patterns in Italy and Spain and the institutional factors (education, labour market, and family) from which they originate. The study highlights that the main differences in young people’s transitions between the two countries are accounted for by the extraordinary expansion of tertiary education and the massive use of temporary contracts in Spain. These two factors contribute to explaining country differences in the relationship between young people’s educational attainment and initial labour market outcomes. Despite these differences two important similarities between Italy and Spain emerge from the analyses: the vulnerability of young people’s position in their early occupational career and their strong dependence on the family of origin.

Much of the functioning of the imperial economy depended on the movement of ‘non‐white’ migrants, especially indentured labourers. Some were recruited in the Pacific islands for work in Queensland, until Australian legislation obliged almost all to leave. Most were from India, and worked especially on plantations in the Caribbean, Fiji, Natal, Malaya, Mauritius, and Ceylon. Many others, also especially from India, were free migrants, responding to domestic pressures and taking up perceived labour and entrepreneurial opportunities as in East and southern Africa. Similarly motivated were Chinese immigrants. Most such people fitted into the dual labour market model, working under white supervision, often temporarily overseas. Large numbers, often maintaining their cultural identities, also settled abroad, though entry and settlement were made difficult until recently by immigration controls erected around white settler societies.

This chapter introduces the concept of dualization. Poverty, inequality, and social exclusion are back on the political agenda in many rich democracies of Western Europe and North America, not only as a consequence of the Great Recession that hit the global economy in 2008. It argues that the translation of structural pressures into policies and outcomes has to be understood as a political process. Dualization is a political process that is characterized by the differential treatment of insiders and outsiders and that can take the form of newly created institutional dualisms or the deepening of existing institutional dualisms (policy output). Thereby, changes in the labor market are translated into the social policy realm, where new distinctions arise or old institutional distinctions are re-activated. Feedback effects and vicious circles are likely to strengthen this effect because weak labor attachment and social exclusion are associated with weaker political representation.

This final chapter summarizes the arguments made in previous chapters, presents conclusions, and also lists topics for future research on income and wealth. It points out that the new contribution of this book is that it systematically reviews the two contrasting views of the labour market––the neoclassical competitive labour market and the dual labour market, and unifies them theoretically as the theory of employment and income determination.

This chapter opens by describing the changing volume of UK emigration, particularly though not only to empire destinations (and not only to the colonies of ‘white settlement’), as well as the movement of non‐white migrants around the empire and of others entering from outside. It then sets the agenda for the rest of the book. The relationship between migrant flows, using a dual labour market model, and immigration into the UK (from empire periphery to empire core) are to be addressed. Migrant experiences will be compared, and the roles of colonial and imperial governments and other agencies in affecting migrant flows explored. Chapters consider some of the economic, social, environmental, political and demographic consequences of empire migration (including the impact on indigenous peoples) and also the volume, causes and consequences of return migration.

This introductory chapter develops an original framework to explain why unions are more or less successful in containing the spread of precarious work. It argues that employment precarity is both an outcome of and a central contributing factor to a mutually reinforcing feedback relationship between labour market, welfare state, and collective bargaining institutions; worker identity and identification; and employer and union strategies. This framework builds on academic discussions of institutional change, dualism, and precarious work from three broad research traditions: comparative political economy, critical sociology, and comparative employment relations. The chapter reviews this literature, outlines the framework, and discusses the chapter findings in the book with reference to the framework.

This chapter examines the political economy of employers’ advocacy of their ‘need’ for migrant workers, focusing on posted workers and temporary labour migration to the UK and Germany. Posted workers are those moving as adjuncts to employers’ transnational service provision under EU law, as exemplified in the Viking Line and Laval cases. It argues that employers proactively use and abuse these forms of migration as a tool to achieve more pronounced disparities in wages and working conditions, that is, to bifurcate labour markets. Drawing on scholarship on dual labour markets, the chapter identifies how migration exacerbates this phenomenon in both the traditionally strongly regulated German labour market, and the more deregulated UK.

This book explores the characteristics of the Japanese social protection system, its historical development, and the political mechanisms that produced it. It argues that the Japanese social protection system should be understood as a system of “welfare through work,” in which employment protection has functionally substituted income maintenance. The book also examines how Japan's highly gendered dual labor market, through its flexibility, was able to support the coexistence of strong employment protection and high employment rates. It shows that labor market reforms since the 1990s altered the connection between work and welfare and made the welfare through work system dysfunctional and unsustainable. The Japanese government, it contends, has failed to update and modernize the system to cope with new social risks.

Redistribution is considered one of the main goals of labour law. When we refer to redistribution as a goal, we usually do so, implicitly, as shorthand for distributive justice. The goal of this chapter is to explore theories of distributive justice, and ask to what extent current labour laws are in line with those ideas, and what else can (or should) labour law do to advance this goal. Several theories are examined: that distributive justice should be based on ‘desert’; theories of distributional equality—notably, luck egalitarianism—which demand redistribution in order to achieve equality in distribution; and theories of redistribution as instrumental to the advancement of equality. At the end of each section, the possible implications for labour law are briefly considered, both in terms of employer–employee relations and in terms of intra-worker distribution. The question will be: what kinds of labour market regulations (if at all) can be supported by each distributive justice theory? Specifically, to what extent do these theories justify existing labour laws? Then in the concluding section some remarks are offered on one area that requires new labour law regulations to address distributive justice concerns: in the light of the previous sections, several steps are suggested that should be taken to address divisions in two-tier and dual labour markets.

In contrast with many other European and OECD countries, income inequality has, with the exception of two recession episodes, decreased over the last 30 years. Nevertheless, Spain still remains one of the most unequal countries in EU15. The most important determinants of this inequality reduction have been earnings compression, changes in the tax system, and the large increase in redistributive social expenditures. The current deep economic recession may change the picture for the coming years, as inequality is already starting to increase. In addition, socio-economic features may jeopardize the future well-being of Spaniards, and increase income and social inequalities. These features can be summarized as: the current polarization of education outcomes, the existing duality in the labour market, the traditionally high unemployment rates, the relatively high share of low-skilled workers in low productivity industries, and the large household private debt that makes many households very vulnerable.

Importantly, standard aggregate measures of inequality mask much more pronounced changes in wage dispersion in many different dimensions, such as firm size, industry (manufacturing versus service, or high- versus low-technology industry), types of occupation, employment status, educational level, gender, and age. Wage inequality reflects individual differences in talent and motivation, but there are also significant socioeconomic, structural, and cultural causes. Chapter 6 explores the underlying drivers of wage inequalities in multiple areas, presenting a new analysis. The common forces such as new technology, automation, globalization, sectoral shifts, and changing skill requirements of the workforce are important drivers. But wage disparities also reflect long-standing structural problems, including gaping disparities between productive and unproductive sectors, labor market rigidities and duality, and outdated business regulations. Our analysis shows that the structural problems amplify wage differentials, while causing misallocations of labor and hence lower productivity. Therefore, addressing productivity disparities could help boost economic growth and at the same time reduce wage disparities in some important ways.

During the three decades that have passed since Japan’s huge financial crash in 1990, the country has been politically stable and its geopolitical circumstances have barely changed. But it has seen fundamental economic and social changes which have left it vulnerable: the move from a relatively young population to be the world’s oldest society, with total population shrinking every year since 2010; the move from being an economic growth champion to a relative laggard, with slow annual productivity growth; the transformation of the Bank of Japan from being an economic disciplinarian to being the enabler of a huge public debt and financing public spending by printing money; the emergence of a deeply divided, dual labour market in which two-fifths of the workforce are in lowly paid, precarious jobs with little skill development; a decline in the rate of marriage and of fertility; and yet simultaneously a dramatic narrowing of the gender gap in tertiary education as female entry into four-year university courses grew remarkably during the 1990s and 2000s. This leaves Japan with eroding male human capital, increased insecurity, and under-employed female human capital.