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Discusses a number of issues put forward by the other authors in this volume. In particular considers the potential role of real interest rates in unemployment models, the importance of the trade balance and related constraints in open economy models and the uniqueness and stability of unemployment equilibria.

The last ten years have witnessed a dramatic rise in the level of unemployment throughout most of Western Europe. The level of registered unemployment has doubled over the last four years in the United Kingdom and West Germany and this is reflected in most other European nations. Sweden is, however, an exception. Over this period there have been a number of other notable changes in the labour markets of Western Europe and it is the relationship between two distinct areas of such change and the pattern of unemployment which is the concern of this paper. The first such change is the upsurge in what might loosely be termed “employment protection”. This refers to the increased difficulty experienced by employers who wish to reduce the size of their labour force. In particular there has been a series of increases in the period of notice required prior to dismissal, in the compensation payments which must be made to workers who are made redundant and in the legal requirements which must be satisfied before an employee may be dismissed. These changes have been brought about both via new legislation and via the increased attention paid to such matters by Trade Union negotiators. The second major change referred to above has been the increasing recourse by governments to so‐called “special employment measures” which refer among other things to wage subsidies of one kind or another which are introduced in order to reduce unemployment.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

The paper outlines and examines a social‐institutional conception of income inequality or economic distribution. The fundamental proposition of this conception is that income inequality/distribution is far from being the outcome of the operation of strictly market laws or economic forces but rather one of institutional arrangements or social structures. Of the latter particularly important have shown to be the institutional structure of the economy, particularly labour markets, as well as the degree of democracy of political systems. The results suggest transcending single‐factor economic explanations and predictions of income inequality, as implied in the Kuznets curve and its ramifications, in favour of an alternative multilevel sociological approach.

Purpose – Ascertaining the extent to which the generalized decline in union density, as well as the erosion in centralized bargaining structures and developments in other labor institutions, have contributed to rising within-country inequality.

Methodology – Econometric analysis of a newly developed dataset combining information on industrial relations and labor law, various dimensions of globalization, and controls for demand and supply of skilled labor for 51 Advanced, Central and Eastern European, Latin American, and Asian countries from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, followed by an analysis of 16 advanced countries over a longer time frame (from the late 1970s to the early 2000s).

Findings – In contrast to previous research, which finds labor institutions to be important determinants of more egalitarian wage or income distributions, the chapter finds that trade unionism and collective bargaining are no longer significantly associated with within-country inequality, except in the Central and Eastern European countries. These findings are interpreted as the result of trade unionism operating under more stringent structural constraints than in the past, partly as a result of globalization trends. In addition, despite much talk about welfare state crisis, welfare states, historically the result of labor's power and mobilization capacity, still play an important redistributive role, at least in advanced countries.

Practical implications – Union attempts at equalizing incomes by compressing market earnings seem ineffective and impractical in the current day and age. Unions should seek to increase the workers’ skill levels and promote an egalitarian transformation of the workplace. This type of “supply-side” egalitarianism is not a new strategy for unions, but is very much embedded in the unions’ DNA.

Examines the recent turnaround in UK productivity compared to other leading industrial nations and whether the improvement is sustainable, with reference to trade unions. Considers the policies required to further improve productivity, the distribution of the benefits among shareholders and workers, and wider community concerns such as the environment. Concludes that there has been no UK “economic miracle” in the 1980s, and that the signs for continued growth are not encouraging.