In Defence of Labour Market Institutions

JANINE BERG is Labour Economist with the International Labour Office in Geneva, Switzerland. She is the author of Miracle for Whom? Chilean Workers under Free Trade and Meeting the Employment Challenge: Argentina, Brazil and Mexico in the Global Economy. DAVID KUCERA is Senior Research Economist at the International Labour Organization. He is author of Gender, Growth and Trade and editor and contributor to Qualitative Indicators of Labour Standards, as well as the author of articles on the economic impact of labour standards and related topics.

'This is a timely volume on a critically important topic. Berg and Kucera and their contributors challenge the conventional wisdom that excessive labor market regulation retards growth and development, and that developing countries in particular can ill afford the level of such regulation that they have taken on. Taken as a whole, the papers make a compelling case for skepticism about this conventional wisdom. The volume provides a vital survey of the state of regulatory institutions in the developing world and the main empirical, theoretical, and normative arguments about the alleged regulation/growth tradeoff.' - Professor Chris Tilly, Department of Regional Economic and Social Development and Center for Industrial Competitiveness, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Introduction; J.Berg & D.Kucera Labour Institutions in Developing Countries: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives; J.Berg & D.Kucera Measuring Labour Market Institutions: Conceptual and methodological questions on 'working hours rigidity'; S.Lee & D.McCann Training Institutions and the Finance of General Skills Training: Evidence from Africa; I.Nübler The Origins of Unemployment Insurance: Lessons for Developing Countries; J.Berg & M.Salerno The Revival of Minimum Wage-Setting Institutions; F.Eyraud & C.Saget What Can Labour Demand Functions tell us about Employment? The Case of the Philippines; J.Felipe & J.S.L.McCombie The Impact of Trade Unions: What do Economists Say?; Z.Tzannatos Labour Standards and Informal Employment in Latin America; R.Galli & D.Kucera Legal Determinants of Labour Informality; J.L.Daza Pérez New Trends in Labour Law Reform in Latin America: The Law, its Reform and its Impact in Practice; M.L.Vega Ruíz