A Future of Good Jobs?

America's Challenge in the Global Economy

(Read the first chapter of this book.)

“A Future of Good Jobs? could hardly be better timed with respect to current trends in the American economy. While most of these trends—widening wage inequality, underemployment of the less educated, increased global competition, and cutbacks in health insurance and retirement coverage—are far from new, it is only recently that policymakers and mainstream economists have come to acknowledge that they are not necessarily self-correcting. The practical, concrete remedies offered in this book are especially welcome in that they are sensitive both to the realities of the U.S. labor force and to the needs and resources of U.S. employers.”

-Jodie Allen, Senior Editor, Pew Research Center

Do Community Colleges Respond to Local Needs?

Evidence from California

(Read the first chapter of this book.)

The role of community colleges has changed in recent years. No longer is their role solely to prepare students to transfer to four-year institutions and to provide occupational training. Now, they must also provide basic adult education and serve an economic development role by implementing training programs that assist in retaining existing employers and attracting new ones. The authors use data from California’s community college system to address whether these efforts are meeting the needs that exist in their communities.

Immigrants and Their International Money Flows

  (Read the first chapter of this book.)

This book consists of a series of studies on the topic of international migration with an emphasis on workers' remittances. Chapters cover the impact of remittances on economic development and the interplay of immigration policies with human capital acquisition and labor markets in out-migration areas.

Reining in the Competition for Capital

  (Read the first chapter of this book.)

“Ann Markusen has done it again. [This book] is a provocative, comprehensive collection from an impressive range of experts only Markusen could have assembled. It is ideal for a course in economic development policy and well worth reading for practitioners and political leaders. I know of no other source that provides so much information and perspective on this contentious policy issue.”

Andrew M. Isserman, University of Illinois

The Working Life

The Labor Market for Workers in Low-Skilled Jobs

(Read the first chapter of this book.)

Maxwell presents the results of her groundbreaking survey of 405 employers, which queried them about jobs requiring no more than a high school education and no more than one year of work experience. These data allow her to establish the link between skills and low-skilled jobs and to reveal the current state of the labor market facing low-skilled workers.

The Shadow Workforce

Perspectives on Contingent Work in the United States, Japan, and Europe

This volume provides an thorough examination of the growth of nonstandard employment and of the similarities and differences of its impacts on employees, businesses, unions, and public policy in the United States, Japan, and Europe. It serves as a one-stop resource for information on the growing contingent labor forces in those nations.

Social Security and the Stock Market

How the Pursuit of Market Magic Shapes the System

(Read the first chapter of this book.)

“Optimal social security design needs to look at the tradeoff between risk and return of retirement benefits. Munnell and Sass provide an excellent and lucid exposition of the issues which arise when seeking higher returns through riskier benefit designs. This is the book to turn to in order to review international experience so as to understand the pluses and minuses of equities.”

J. Michael Orszag, Head of Research, Watson Wyatt LLP

The Geography of American Poverty

Is There a Need for Place-Based Policies?

The authors conclude that a unique combination of place-based and person-based policies is needed to help defeat poverty in the most distressed American central cities and remote high-poverty rural communities, and they develop a set of policy recommendations to ensure that job creation efforts benefit the poor -- the intended beneficiaries. Overall, they call for a more integrated national poverty reduction strategy that recognizes that “one size doesn’t fit all.”