Erin Pizzey

J. R. Shackleton

Peter Urwin

Throughout history there have always been groups seeking to turn the powers of government to their own advantage. Today, one frequently employed strategy is to claim victim status for members of a group, and then insist on rights to be guaranteed by the state. However these rights are better understood as legally sanctioned privileges which have more in common with the preferments awarded by pre-democracy monarchs to their favourites.

Women Or Men - who are the Victims?

Employment regulation has been growing rapidly. This has not exclusively, or even mainly, come from the European Union. Recent UK governments have added such significant new measures as the National Living Wage, workplace pensions and the Apprenticeship Levy. The costs of such regulation are frequently assumed – by both advocates and opponents – to fall on business profits. This isn’t so, except in the very short run. They are instead transferred in part to consumers, but mainly to employees themselves. Mandated benefits – longer holidays or extended maternity leave – mean reduced pay growth and fewer job opportunities. Anti-discrimination laws lead to fewer openings for disadvantaged groups, while employment protection legislation worsens job prospects for the young. Excessive regulation acts as a barrier to entry, shielding incumbents and deterring the foundation of new enterprises. Attempts to restrict new types of employment in the ‘gig’ economy are counterproductive, serving ‘insiders’ at the expense of ‘outsiders’. This book combines a history of employment laws with detailed analysis of the troublesome effects of various interventions. The author argues for a fundamental rethink. Some basic labour market regulation may still be necessary, but far less than we currently have.

The Damaging Economics of UK Employment Regulation

Working to Rule: The Damaging Economics of UK Employment Regulation

David S. Oderberg

Stephen Davies

Philip Booth

Claire Fox

Dennis Hayes

Jacob Mchangama

Victoria Hewson

Nick Cowen

Leo Kearse

Today should be a Golden Age for free speech – with technology providing more ways of communicating ideas and opinions than ever before. Yet we’re actually witnessing a growing wave of restrictions on freedom of thought and expression. In Having Your Say a variety of authors – academics, philosophers, comedians and more – stress the fundamental importance of free speech, one of the cornerstones of classical liberalism. And they provide informed and incisive insights on this worrying trend, which threatens to usher in a new, intolerant and censorious era.

Threats to Free Speech in the 21st Century

Having Your Say

Thomas Lange

Examines such issues as privatization, monetary reform, and unemployment in reunified Germany. Contributors from economics and politics discuss the complex processes of the unification and what can be learned from it about economies and societies that undergo profound transformations. They suggest that Europe as a whole is about to encounter such change of like magnitude. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Political Economy of German Unification

J. R. Shackleton

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