Labour, Globalization and the State (Routledge Contemporary South Asia)

This book explores the impact of neoliberal globalization on labour markets and the state in the developed and developing world. It focuses especially on the United States and the economies of Asia – in particular, India. Liberalized trade and investment are thought by neoliberals to be the best levers for raising labour standards, provided labour market flexibility and capital market restructuring accompany them. Labour market flexibility and capital market restructuring, at a first glance, appear to be complementary and symmetric policies. In practice, however, they might have very asymmetric consequences. This book addresses these issues, and it presents a comprehensive analysis of the key questions such as:

• How far is globalization a ‘real’ threat to the conventional systems of wage fixation, employment pattern, and basic rights at work in both developed, as well as underdeveloped countries?
• Are casualization and informalization of the workforce direct outcomes of deregulation?
• How do labour organizations cope with the volatility of the labour market?
• Are the existing labour market conditions and forms of labour organizations misfits in the globalized business world?
• Is it at all feasible to choose a high road that combines some degree of labour market flexibility with better labour standards?

This book will be of interest to academics working on International Development, Development Economics, Political Economy, Comparative Labour Studies and Asian Studies.

Debdas Banerjee is Professor of Economics at the Institute of Development Studies Kolkata, and former Fulbright Senior Scholar at the MIT, Cambridge. He has authored books on globalization, labour, industrial restructuring, and dependence.

Michael Goldfield is Professor of Industrial Relations and Human Resources, Department of Political Science, Wayne State University. He has authored numerous books and articles on labor, industrial relations, race relations, and globalization.