Economic Analysis of Labor Markets and Labor Law: An Institutional/Industrial Relations Perspective

Abstract

In the twentieth century two intellectual traditions were the most influential in the American field of labor economics. The first was the tradition of institutional economics (IE) and its close offshoot industrial relations (IR), the second was the tradition of neoclassical economics (NE). This cleavage is refracted into the modern field of labor law where on one side is an IEIR-oriented traditional approach to labor law (e.g., Deakin and Wilkinson 2005; Estlund 2006; Arthurs 2007) and, on the other, a largely NE-inspired law and economics (L&E) approach (Schwab 1997; Posner 2007; Medema 2010).