Inequality, Uncertainty, and Opportunity

The manner in which financial market developments permeate labor and industrial relations may explain many of the pressing phenomena of our times—economic instability, jobless recoveries, and high income and wealth inequality. Financial market trends influence hiring and compensation decisions, change managerial outlooks, steer investments and technology, and strain collective bargaining agreements. Inequality, Uncertainty, and Opportunity provides readers with a sense of the many ways in which financial market developments influence labor and industrial relations.

A proliferation of financial goods and services and an increasing focus on short-term financial performance measures largely dominated developed economies' development for more than three decades. These trends directly affect the fundamental macroeconomic relationships, such as economic growth and job creation, for firm behavior, particularly with respect to hiring and productive investments, and for individual decision making, as in the realm of retirement savings. Economies have become less stable, job creation has become more tenuous, and income inequality has soared.

Contributors: Eileen Appelbaum, Center for Economic and Policy Research; Rose Batt, Cornell University; Sara M Bernardo, University of Massachusetts Boston; Joseph Blasi, Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations; Janet Boguslaw, Brandeis University; Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, University of Illinois; Klaus Doerre, University of Jena, Germany; Teresa Ghilarducci, New School University; Adam Hersh, Center for American Progress; William Lazonick, University of Massachusetts Lowell; David Madland, Center for American Progress; Joelle Saad-Lessler, New School University; Christian E. Weller, University of Massachusetts Boston; Dan Weltmann, Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations; Jeffrey Wenger, University of Georgia; Edward N. Wolff, New York University