Wisconsin and the Assault on the Public Sector
What is the political background to the systematic attack on public sector unions, and on the publicsector more generally, in Wisconsin, elsewhere in the Midwest, and in other places in the US? To what extent does it have the support of the electorate and the broader public? Our speakers will consider this issue in connection […]
Panel – Organizing Workers in the Informal Economy: Brazil, China, Mexico, South Africa … and Los Angeles
Across the globe, workers in the informal economy are organizing -- from trash recyclers in Brazil and day laborers in China, to street vendors in Mexico and domestic workers in South Africa. Researchers from these countries will join labor activists from Los Angeles on a panel discussion about these and other organizing efforts, and discuss […]
Human Persons, Incompressible Needs and Minimum Wages in Post-war France
The passage of minimum wage legislation in 1950 led to one of the odder chapters in the history of French bureaucratic committees. Paul Bacon, Minister of Labor, convened a High Commission on Collective Bargaining in April of that year to measure a model worker’s budget. Over thirty members strong, the meeting assembled major leaders of […]
The Elasticity of Labor Supply to the Firm over the Business Cycle
Recent work suggests that the labor elasticity of supply to the firm is finite. In other words, labor markets are not perfectly competitive. We provide the first estimates of the degree of labor market imperfections over a long period of time with significant variation in the state of the macroeconomy. Using data from the Ford […]
La restructuración de la Industria Siderúrgica en México
Starting in the 1980s, the Mexican government reduced its participation in the steel industry, a sector which had been one of the engines of national economic growth.The government closed, restructured and privatized large steel plants, including Fundidora Monterrey in 1986, Minera Cananea in 1989, and Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA) and Siderúrgica Lázaro Cardenas-Las Truchas […]