First published in 1974, Employment Policies in Developing Countries is an attempt to take stock of experience that has been acquired in a number of developing countries in matters relating to employment promotion. It begins with a discussion of the nature of the employment objective, its role in the development process and with some attempt to quantify the dimensions of the problem. In Part Two employment promotion measures are examined in relation to each of the major economic sectors, while Part Three is concerned with vocational training, migration, and demographic policies. Finally, some suggestions are made as to how developing countries might define employment goals and formulate programmes for their attainment. This book is a must read for scholars and researchers of economics, labour economics and public policy.

Provides a relatively nontechnical survey of employment-related issues and problems in less developed countries.

This important study shifts the focus of scholarly and policy debates around the role of labour law away from the North to those of the global South.

There is a striking scarcity of work conducted on rural labour markets in the developing world, particularly in Africa. This book aims to fill this gap by bringing together a group of contributors who boast substantial field experience researching rural wage employment in various developing countries. It provides critical perspectives on mainstream approaches to rural/agrarian development, and analysis of agrarian change and rural transformations from a long-term perspective. This book challenges the notion that rural areas in low- and middle-income countries are dominated by self-employment. It purports that this conventional view is largely due to the application of conceptual frameworks and statistical conventions that are ill-equipped to capture labour market participation. The contributions in this book offer a variety of methodological lessons for the study of rural labour markets, focusing in particular on the use of mixed methods in micro-level field research, and more emphasis on capturing occupation multiplicity. The emphasis on context, history, and specific configurations of power relations affecting rural labour market outcomes are key and reoccurring features of this book. This analysis will help readers think about policy options to improve the quantity and quality of rural wage employment, their impact on the poorest rural people, and their political feasibility in each context.

Abstract: This paper presents a selective overview of the literature on modeling labor market policies in developing countries. It considers welfare economics, theoretical models, and empirical evidence to highlight the three general features needed in future research on labor market policy in developing countries. The author identifies desirable research components (welfare economics, theoretical modeling, and empirical modeling) and pitfalls in the literature (inappropriate use of productivity, reliance on wrong kinds of empirical studies, lack of cost-benefit analysis, attention to only a subset of the goods and bads, and fallacy of composition). The paper concludes with suggested topics and methods for future research. The author states that sound labor market policy requires sound labor market models. The paper makes a case for developing policy based on explicit evaluation criteria, specific theoretical models, and comprehensive empirical evidence.