"Introduction" [2009] ELECD 402; in Dau-Schmidt, G. Kenneth; Harris, D. Seth; Lobel, Orly (eds), "Labor and Employment Law and Economics" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Labor and Employment Law and Economics

Editor(s): Dau-Schmidt, G. Kenneth; Harris, D. Seth; Lobel, Orly

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847207296

Section Title: Introduction

Number of pages: 6

Extract:

Introduction
Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Seth D. Harris and
Orly Lobel


The purpose of this volume
Labor and Employment Law and Economics is one of the first separate and
subject-specific volumes of Edward Elgar Publishing's Encyclopedia of
Law and Economics. Like its parent publication (Bouckaert and DeGeest
2000), this volume offers a comprehensive collection of chapters survey-
ing the law and economics literature. Unlike the original Encyclopedia, it
focuses on the employment relationship, labor markets and worker organi-
zations, and regulation of those subjects. The specialization of the volume
reflects the extraordinary growth of the field, its complexity and diversity.
This focus does not imply a normative position regarding whether and how
economics should influence the law governing these topics. Rather, this
volume explains the economic background, motivations, and implications
of labor and employment law so that researchers, teachers, policymakers,
advocates, and jurists throughout the world will be better able to advance
their own preferred positions.
Distinguished scholars from various disciplines within this field have
contributed chapters. Their task was complicated. Economics had already
begun to play a significant role in scholarly debates over labor and employ-
ment law long before the original Encyclopedia was published in 2000. In
the nine short years since, scholarly works addressing the economics of
labor and employment law have proliferated. Yet, no consensus has been
reached. To the contrary, ideological and methodological disputes, and
even disagreements about the underlying facts, continue. This volume is
agnostic about these disputes, although individual chapters may ...