Adjustment and restructuring deliver heavy rolls on labour, particularly in the short run. This is a central problem in both developed and developing economies. But aggregate analysis of unemployment trends is often inadequate or, at best, incomplete. To understand macro responses and trends in aggregate employment requires exploring how labour in all its diverse facets responds to changing incentives and institutions at the micro level. This book was conceived so as to explore the micro/macro link. A 'vertical' perspective from the macro trend down to the minute functioning of urban and rural labour markets provides the texture that brings together all the works collected here. The book starts with the analysis of the relationship between employment and broad economic aggregates: growth and trade. It then provides new findings on issues like formal and informal labour, the link between destitution and unemployment, the impact of collective decision making at the commune and household level on the decision to migrate, to educate children and to supply labour.  

Contributors: S. Appleton, G. Barba Navaretti, P. Dasgupta, F. Daveri, R. Faini, V. K. FitzGerald, E. Grilli, J. Hoddinott, P. Krishnan, M. Liu, K. Max, G. Perosino, G. Ranis, F. Stewart, G. Zanalda