This paper unravels a cyclical pattern in the value of employment elasticity in organized manufacturing in India over the period 1976-2002. Four periods are distinguished: the ‘benign’ growth period of the late seventies; the period of ‘jobless growth’ of the first half of the eighties;...

The slowdown and possible reversal in the rural-to-urban flow of labor in Ghana is symptomatic of a basic shortcoming in the country's economic recovery: the inadequate growth of the productive sector in the non-agricultural economy. The rate of growth of GDP has been adequate but much of the...

The article investigates the working of a model of an urban labor market in LDG's which has two sectors—one sector (the U-sector) being characterized by ease of entry, variable hours of work and flexible earnings, the other (the O-sector), by rigid wages maintained at a relatively high level....

Malaysia's sustained growth in the 1970s was boosted by windfall gains during two oil price hikes plus a commodity boom. Oil and commodity prices fell in the 1980s and Malaysia, an oil exporter, bungled into a rather severe depression in 1985-86. But it recovered quickly, to the surprise of some...

This paper examines the potential trade-off between growth in employment and growth in wages. In order to assess the trade-off between employment growth and real wage growth, we make use of a simple decomposition model, following Mazumdar (2000), in which real wage growth is determined by growth...

Korea is an interesting case study in long-term and short-term adjustment. The country's rate of economic growth after 1965 was high at a time of rapid, fundamental economic restructuring. It's open, export-oriented economy was exposed to oil price shocks and interest rate hikes. To keep up the...

The authors have written an overview of 19 papers in a symposium devoted to an examination of the interaction between labor markets and adjustment. The purpose of their commentary is to draw general conclusions and policy lessons and to identify areas for further research. The papers include 7...

Using three rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey, conducted between 1988 and 1992, the authors present findings that shed light on the structure of inequality among different socioeconomic groups in different geographic areas, in the context of poverty reduction. First, poverty reduction...

The authors examine the investment behaviour of a sample of small, credit-constrained firms in Sri Lanka. Using a unique panel-data set, they analyze and compare the activities of two groups of small firms distinguished by their different access to financing; one group consists of firms with...