Onyi Akachukwu Joseph

Labour Economics and Industrial Relations Onyi Akachukwu Joseph

This textbook is a product of many years of research in the field of Labour Economics. In Economics, labour refers to the economic resource that includes all forms of human effort that result in the production of a good or service in exchange for a wage or salary. Labour Economics and Industrial Relations is the branch of economics that studies the nature and determinants of employment and compensation. Particular emphasis is placed on the role played by social institutions and different types of market structures that jointly determine the pattern and mobility or speed of adjustment in the labour market where human labour inputs are bought and sold. Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the markets for wage labour. Labour economics looks at the suppliers of labour services (workers), the demands of labour services (employers), and attempts to understand the resulting pattern of wages, employment, and income. Labour markets function through the interaction of workers and employers. Labour economics and Industries Relations field tries to understand and explain dynamics and functioning of labour market, both at theoretical and empirical levels. The field has a significant policy orientation, with a strong theoretical background. The mainstream approaches towards labour economics is micro-economically founded and based on the concept of labour marginal productivity which in equilibrium is equal to labour compensation. Macroeconomic techniques look at the interrelations between the labour market, the goods market, the money market, and the foreign trade market. It looks at how these interactions influence macro variables such as employment levels, participation rates, aggregate income and gross domestic product. The book is highly commendable for its broad approach in treating the concept Labour Economics and Industrial Relations. Given that labour economics deals with 'real world' issues, the empirical side of the subject is very important. This book Labour economics and Industrial Relations will equipp students and business Managers in taking better decisions and challenges posed by micro and macro-economics environment. Students will find the "objectives of the Chapter" and Questions and Discussions" listed at the beginning and end of each chapter to be a useful guides. Given the type of questions that it seeks to answer, the book will be particularly useful for undergraduates' students, Post graduate students as well as business managers interested in careers in a range of government departments as well as private sectors.