From Labour Market Institutions to an Alternative Model of Labour Markets

Abstract

This post-disciplinary article goes beyond orthodox labour economics and combines insights from the ‘socio-economics of labour markets’ (SELM), and critical realism (CR), to develop a SELM^CR perspective, which is then used to create an alternative conception of labour market institutions and an alternative model of labour markets, i.e. the SELM^CR model.

Keywords::

• labour markets
• institutions
• ontology
• critical realism

Notes

¹ For a quasi-orthodox view of LMIs, see Marsden (1999). For non-orthodox ideas on institutions in general see Rutherford (1999).

² Anything can be measured but this is pointless if the measure is meaningless (Fleetwood & Hesketh, 2010, pp. 160–163).

³ This can involve economists ‘colonising’ other disciplines, transforming them into a version of economics—as in the case with the version of ‘political economy’ espoused by St Paul. This is not multi-disciplinarity, but ‘economics imperialism’ (Fine & Milonakis, 2009).

⁴ For CR ideas in economics in general, see Lawson (1997, 2003), and Lewis (2004); and in labour economics, see Fleetwood (1999, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2014a, 2014b) and Wilson (2007).

⁵ On emergence see Elder-Vass (2007a, 2007b, 2007c, 2010).

⁶ For an elaboration of this ontology see Archer (1995, 1998).

⁷ Despite differences in appearance, this model is entirely consistent with the model sketched in Fleetwood (2011, p. 735, Figure 5). Apparent differences are due to ‘telling two different stories’ as it were.

⁸ For a discussion of future labour markets, see Fleetwood (2014b).