Part I The problem: why work?; America's second-class workers; the decline of labour; the damage to others. Part II The causes: is it culture?; economic sources; the role of the welfare system. The remedy: the market-based solution; the case for the market-based solution; the flaws in other approaches; reply to objections.
"Rewarding Work" is a calm, carefully researched, politically
balanced, always professional treatise with no hint of class
warfare.--Edgar R. Fiedler "Across the Board "
[Phelps's] plan, laid out in..."Rewarding Work", has drawn rave
notices from both conservatives and liberals, making it the most
interesting idea in years...Something like [this] idea...may be the
only way to achieve a lasting political consensus for the open
markets and technical advances that, in the long run, benefit us
all.--Matthew Miller "Washington Post "
[William Julius] Wilson's findings [on the disappearance of work]
underscore the importance of Edmund S. Phelps's book "Rewarding
Work". Phelps, an economist at Columbia University, argues against
the idea that low-wage workers are unproductive and unreliable
because of their culture or their lack of bourgeois morals.
Instead, he suggests, the gap between low-wage work and
middle-class work creates disincentives for the least-paid workers
to obtain the education and job skills that would enhance the
economy's overall productivity...'America has no clear and explicit
social policy toward the rewards of work, ' Phelps points
out.--Alan Wolfe "American Prospect "
A splendid book...The Chancellor has put forward the idea of a
working family tax credit...The most direct assault is always the
best. If the problem is low wages and inadequate incentives to
work, the solution must be wage subsidies...[Phelps] offers a
compelling argument for a tapered subsidy to low-wage
employment.--Martin Wolf "Financial Times "
Although it refers entirely to the USA, ["Rewarding Work"] is
equally interesting for the European audience since an important
remedy for the joblessness of less-qualified workers in Europe is
claimed to be a wage structure which is more downward flexible.
Moreover, the book is written in a fairly nontechnical manner so
that it is suitable for a broad readership.--W. Franz "Journal of
Economics [UK] "
Edmund Phelps has proposed a radical scheme to subsidize low-wage
labour in the United States [Workers'] pay and employment prospects
would be transformed...The modern welfare state is working very
badly, and Mr. Phelps's scheme is intended in due course not to add
to it, but to replace it.--Clive Crook "Economist "
In this short, popular book Edmund Phelps proposes and defends the
policy of providing wage subsidies to low-wage workers. The first
half of the book provides a breezy account of wages since World War
II... [the second half] explains Phelp's proposed wage subsidy and
defends it against objections both from those disliking any such
policy and those supporting other similar policies...Phelps is to
be congratulated for turning his considerable talents to a vitally
important problem.--Peter Temin "Journal of Economic History "
Phelps doesn't like unions, would abolish tariffs, opposes the
minimum wage, would dismantle the welfare state and believes deeply
in the virtues of unfettered capitalism. But then something strange
happens, and you hear the 64-year-old Columbia University professor
urging radical intervention in the labor market. He proceeds to
outline a plan that would require massive tax credits for
businesses that employ low-wage workers...It turns out that he
believes the only way for the welfare state to wither on the vine
(and for tariffs to be eliminated once and for all) is for an idea
such as his to be implemented. After reading his stimulating book,
"Rewarding Work", and interviewing him at some length, I've become
a convert.--Gene Epstein "Barrons "
The importance of Edmund Phelps's new book is that it offers a
novel yet plausible solution to America's core economic problem,
stagnant or declining wages of full-time, low-wage
workers...[Phelps] calculates that the benefits to society from
one's ability to support oneself and to exercise responsibility as
a parent, spouse, community member and citizen make his program
self-financed, thanks to the offsetting reduction in the costs of
welfare, medical care, illegitimacy, crime and other social
pathologies...Phelps's scheme can be compared to matching-grant
gifts, a common practice among many companies that participate in
matching employees' alumni gifts to their alma maters...As workfare
schemes begin to impinge on the U.S. labor scene, Phelps should be
taken seriously. He deserves much credit as an economist with the
knowledge and perseverance to grapple head-on with these devils in
the details.--Edward T. Chase "The Nation "
The most serious book of public policy economics to be published
this year. The beauty of "Rewarding Work" is, well, its beauty. It
is a superby worked-out argument: clear, pithy, brief, and derived
from first principles.--David Warsh "Boston Globe "
This book is addressed explicitly to the general public, in the
hope, Mr. Phelps states boldly on his very first page, that its
ideas will win general acceptance and be considered for enactment
into law...He takes the view that many Americans have been driven
out of working life, and deprived of all the physical and
psychological succor that work provides, simply because their wages
are too low, especially when the amount they are able to earn is
compared with the amount they can 'earn' in payments and kind via
the welfare system by doing no work at all...Mr. Phelps makes his
economic case with forensic clarity.--Peter David "Wall Street
Journal "
[Phelps's] plan, laid out in..."Rewarding Work," has drawn rave
notices from both conservatives and liberals, making it the most
interesting idea in years...Something like [this] idea...may be the
only way to achieve a lasting political consensus for the open
markets and technical advances that, in the long run, benefit us
all. -- Matthew Miller "Washington Post"
be wage subsidies...[Phelps] offers a compelling argument for a
tapered subsidy to low-wage employment.
because it shows how to reconcile a rigorously 'market-friendly'
approach to policy with effective intervention by the state in
pursuit of social goals...Deserves to be widely read and
discussed.
brief, and derived from first principles.
compared with the amount they can 'earn' in payments and kind via
the welfare system by doing no work at all...Mr. Phelps makes his
economic case with forensic clarity.
for the least-paid workers to obtain the education and job skills
that would enhance the economy's overall productivity...'America
has no clear and explicit social policy toward the rewards of work,
' Phelps points out.
idea...may be the only way to achieve a lasting political consensus
for the open markets and technical advances that, in the long run,
benefit us all.
maters...As workfare schemes begin to impinge on the U.S. labor
scene, Phelps should be taken seriously. He deserves much credit as
an economist with the knowledge and perseverance to grapple head-on
with these devils in the details.
Europe is claimed to be a wage structure which is more downward
flexible. Moreover, the book is written in a fairly nontechnical
manner so that it is suitable for a broad readership.
Phelps's scheme is intended in due course not to add to it, but to
replace it.
Work," and interviewing him at some length, I've become a
convert.
ÝPhelps's¨ plan, laid out in..."Rewarding Work," has drawn rave
notices from both conservatives and liberals, making it the most
interesting idea in years...Something like Ýthis¨ idea...may be the
only way to achieve a lasting political consensus for the open
markets and technical advances that, in the long run, benefit us
all. -- Matthew Miller "Washington Post"
ÝWilliam Julius¨ Wilson's findings Ýon the disappearance of work¨
underscore the importance of Edmund S. Phelps's book "Rewarding
Work." Phelps, an economist at Columbia University, argues against
the idea that low-wage workers are unproductive and unreliable
because of their culture or their lack of bourgeois morals.
Instead, he suggests, the gap between low-wage work and
middle-class work creates disincentives for the least-paid workers
to obtain the education and job skills that would enhance the
economy's overall productivity...'America has no clear and explicit
social policy toward the rewards of work, ' Phelps points out. --
Alan Wolfe "American Prospect"
Although it refers entirely to the USA, Ý"Rewarding Work"¨ is
equally interesting for the European audience since an important
remedy for the joblessness of less-qualified workers in Europe is
claimed to be a wage structure which is more downward flexible.
Moreover, the book is written in a fairly nontechnical manner so
that it is suitable for a broad readership. -- W. Franz "Journal of
Economics ÝUK¨"
In the 1960s Mr. Phelps and Milton Friedman, working independently,
were the first to postulate the idea of a natural rate of
unemployment. Mr. Phelps's new work is in the same tradition of
market ('neoclassical') economics. His argument for big subsidies
to the low-paid is consistent not just with respect for the power
of market forces but also, and more broadly, with a classical
liberal view of the world. The idea is particularly striking
because it shows how to reconcile a rigorously 'market-friendly'
approach to policy with effective intervention by the state in
pursuit of social goals...Deserves to be widely read and discussed.
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