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This volume brings together an international group of contributors to explore the impacts of structural economic change and technological progress on labor markets. The contributors goal is to present an in-depth comparative study of the ways in which different national economies have adjusted to structural changes like the shift to service-based economies and technological changes brought about by the increasing use of the computer in offices and on the production line. Examining the adjustment process from both a micro and macro perspective, the contributors analyze the flexibility potentials within the different institutional organizations of the labor market in the U.S., France, West Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden.
The study begins with a comprehensive introduction written by the editors which discusses the problem of structural and technological change in economic, social, and political terms. Two subsequent chapters address the economic structures of post-industrial society and the differential characteristics of employment growth in service industries. The contributors then present individual analyses of the labor market situation in the five countries under study as well as two general studies of institutions regulating the labor market and flexibility within the labor market. Throughout, the contributors are concerned with key issues such as which systems seem to adapt best, how skill and educational needs may be met in the changing labor market, and the importance of flexibility in a system characterized by ongoing structural and technological change. Ideal as supplementary reading for advanced courses in labor economics and industrial organization, this volume offers important new insights into labor market flexibility in the face of significant and continuing change.
List of contents
Introduction
The Impacts of Structural and Technological Change: An Overview by Eileen Appelbaum & Ronald Schettkat
General Changes in the Structure of the EconomiesStructures of Postindustrial Society or Does Mass Unemployment Disappear in the Service and Information Economy? by Fritz W. Sharpf
Differential Characteristics of Employment Growth in Service Industries by Eileen Appelbaum & Peter Albin
Structural Change in the United States, Past and Prospective: Its Implication for Skill and Educational Requirements by Ronald E. Kutscher
Structural Change, Information Technology, and Employment: The Case of France by Pascal Petit
Structural Change in the Federal Republic of Germany: The Case of Services by Frank Stille
Adjusting to Technological and Structural ChangeInstitutions Regulating the Labor Market: Support or Impediments for Structural Change? by Günther Schmid
Flexibility in the Labor Market--Internal versus External Adjustment in International Comparison by Werner Sengenberger
Manufacturing Products with Microelectronics: Sectoral Strengths and the Social Construction of Actors in Britain and Germany by Adrian Campbell, Arndt Sorge, and Malcom Warner
Labor Market Adjustments to Structural Change in Sweden by Lena Gonäs
Adjustment Processes in the Economy: Labor Market Dynamics in the Federal Republic of Germany by Ronald Schettkat
Bibliography
Index
About the author
RONALD SCHETTKAT is currently a Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study and a Senior Fellow in the Labor Market and Employment research unit at the Wissenschaftszentrum in Berlin, Germany. He co-edited (with Eileen Applebaum) Labor Market Adjustments to Structural Change and Technological Progress (Praeger, 1990). Schettkat has worked for more than ten years in labor economics and has completed several international comparative studies.
