http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/services/Feed ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:11450 Mainstream economists have recently discovered what heterodox economists have long known - that the study of psychology is useful in understanding human behavior and the success of socioeconomic policy. Many orthodox economists now accept that happiness exists, can be objectively measured, has important individual and social consequences and can be externally altered (Easterlin 1974; Kahneman 1999; Blanchflower and Oswald 2004; Layard 2005). The new research on well-being suggests that economics must now go beyond the nineteenth century psychological approach that characterizes neoclassical analysis, toward a more "Veblenian" or Humanistic approach to human psychology (Cordes 2005). The utilitarian (Benthamite) psychology that has dominated mainstream economic thought for the last century tries to explain and predict human behavior as the outcome of self interested action, which is manifest, ideally, in voluntary exchange. Yet, among other failures, this hedonistic psychology is largely incapable of explaining why economic growth has not improved well-being in the developed world; it sheds little light on the abundance paradox experienced in many rich countries today. The inability of economic growth to improve life satisfaction in the developed world is becoming increasing apparent. Given the social, psychological and environmental fallout of the last 50 years of economic growth, it is unclear whether "material abundance" in advanced nations is a reflection of social progress. Such questioning echoes the doubts of early socialist thinkers (such as Owen, Mill, Marx, and Keynes) that access to more goods will improve the human condition. Revealing the seamy side of growth, recent well-being research seriously questions whether the preponderant emphasis placed on production over the last 50 years has allowed individuals to "live wisely and agreeably well" (Keynes 1972). 2012-09-04T03:12:26.278Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10712 This study examines the impact of female labour force attachment on health in Australia, where health care is socially provided. Longitudinal panel data from Women’s Health Australia is used in a metric analysis to capture the impact of labour market attachment on the physical component health score of relatively young and older female workers. After controlling for the healthy worker effect – wherein firms hire and retain the healthiest workers – and other health-related changes in socio-economic status, the analysis suggests that even a moderate attachment to the paid labour force has benevolent effects on health relative to no or marginal attachment. Given the existing social structure in Australia, remunerative work generally appears to enhance the health of young women and arrest the decline of health for older female workers. 2012-05-01T04:04:14.964Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:1193 The passage of the Work Choices Act 2005 serves to eliminate one of the last symbols of fairness in Australian society; the judicially-determined conciliation and arbitration system and wage-setting machinery. In this paper we examine the flawed conceptual framework, which underpins the Government's view that reducing the rights and protections of workers will produce superior labour market outcomes. We argue that the principal failure of the Work Choices Act is that it ignores the role of macroeconomic policy in directly addressing the efficiency and equity issues that have been said to motivate its provisions. The Act also ignores the different bargaining power of workers and capital and pays no attention to the serious social repercussions that will flow when labour is treated like a commodity. The imperative to minimise labour costs under Work Choices will spur a race to the bottom and the profusion of insecure, low-paid, poor-quality work in an economy characterised by allocative and dynamic inefficiency. 2012-03-08T04:20:01.928Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:8440 This book looks beyond the 20th century arguments for shortening the work week. It is a critique of traditional full employment policies in advocacy of an alternative macroeconomic paradigm. With an emphasis on greater socioeconomic participation, it proposes a policy of work time regulation that is not only appropriate for a 21st century post-industrial economy, but speaks to concerns about balancing work and family, environmental sustainability, stabilizing incomes and prices, and social and economic well being. Through its conceptualization of employment relations as a social effort bargain, this book proposes that governments can achieve egalitarian and sustainable macroeconomic objectives by regulating work hours. Equally important to achieving sustainable full employment and price stability, work time regulation offers the capability for citizens living in an age of abundance to define themselves as something other than paid employees. Work time reform represents a first step in a process of enlightenment in which workers will create an identity through the whole of their relationships at work, home, community, and at play. There is certainly a role for government in fostering the pursuit of "loftier ideals" subsequent to a redistribution of work time, but the first precondition for enhanced human development is greater socioeconomic participation, which means more paid work for some and less for others. 2011-07-21T04:20:11.705Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6599 The enactment of right to work legislation in Oklahoma in 2001 prompted renewed academic interest inthe subject of union security. The comtemporary debate about right to work (or RTW) typically focuses on two related policy aspects. The first has to do with whether RTW laws inure to the general economic well-being of states which enact such legislation. The second aspect takes up the matter of individual liberties and the perceived danger of "coercion" by some outside force. 2010-08-10T22:40:01.201Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6444 The purpose of this chapter is to investigate how the institutionalist view of human behavior and the related critique of the neoclassical labor market elucidate our understanding of the societal division of labor. After reviewing the behavioral assumptions of neoclassical theory, the institutionalist view of human behavior is presented. This view focuses on Veblen's contention that labor is not irksome and that neoclassical theory is subverted by the realization that humankind possesses an instinct for workmanship. The institutionalist method is then used to comment on the inability of both workers and employers to obtain optimal work hours. In an effort to anticipate the future of work time, the analysis concludes with an examination of the history of work hours and current work time trends. 2010-06-11T02:20:01.205Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:6401 This paper presents a new dynamic model of union density that exhibits multiple equilibria and pathdependency. The model builds upon (Freeman, R.B., 1998. Spurts in union growth: defining moments and social processes. In: Bordo, M., Goldin, C., White, E. (Eds.), The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the 20th Century. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago) who identified the importance of union spending on organizing and business spending on opposing unions. It emphasizes the demand for union representation that depends on wage bargaining outcomes, the state of labor law, and socio-economic factors impacting public attitudes to unions. The model is used to provide a narrative account of the historical evolution of union density in the U.S. and to identify factors important for its future evolution. 2010-06-10T03:10:03.048Z ]]> http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:2919 In this chapter we provide an integrated theoretical and empirical critique of the WorkChoices package, which is informed by economic principles. In section 2 we outline the emergence of the new consensus macroeconomics paradigm, which has shaped economic debate and policy development over the last two decades, yet has failed to deliver sufficient economic growth to sustain full employment in developed countries. In the following section we reflect on the tension between long-established industrial relations practices in Australia and this broad neoliberal reform agenda. We argue taht the subsumption of the labour market within the market reform process not only represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how labour markets operate, but, more broadly, is not grounded in rigorous macroeconomic principles. 2010-04-27T07:00:15.843Z ]]>