Regulating for Decent Work: New Directions in Labour Market Regulation

Abstract

Introduction to Regulating for Decent Work: New Directions in Labour Market Regulation (Palgrave/ILO 2011). The book is an international and interdisciplinary response to the two most significant accounts of the role and significance of labour market regulation: orthodox economic theory and the International Labour Organization’s Decent Work Agenda. It is the first volume to be compiled from the work of the Network on Regulating for Decent Work, an international and interdisciplinary research network established to support and encourage interdisciplinary research on labour market regulation. The volume advances the academic and policy debates on post-crisis labour regulation by identifying new challenges, subjects and theoretical perspectives. It identifies central themes in the contemporary regulation of labour, including the role of empirical research in assessing and supporting labour market interventions; the regulation of precarious work; and the emergence of new types of labour market.

This Introduction first outlines the recent evolution of the deregulatory narrative. It then draws on subsequent chapters in the volume to address the design of theoretical, conceptual and methodological frameworks through which research on labour market regulation can be advanced. Two issues of central relevance are elaborated: the potential benefits of labour regulation and the complexity of regulatory frameworks.

Keywords: labor market regulation, labor law, labour economics, decent work, international labour organization, precarious work

JEL Classification: J00, J50, K31, O17, O19