Re-Inventing Unemployment: Welfare Reform as Labour Market Regulation
University of Melbourne Legal Studies Research Paper No. 137
Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law Working Paper No. 36
28 Pages Posted: 25 Jan 2006
Date Written: January 2006
Abstract
One of the many peculiarities of labour as a commodity is that, unlike many commodities, it is not in fact produced for sale. The supply-side of the labour market operates relatively autonomously from the specific requirements and demands of the labour market, and the reproduction of labour proceeds unrelated to calculations about its subsequent saleability on the market. A key regulatory problem, then, in constituting a market for labour, is securing a supply of labour-as-commodity in the first instance.
Keywords: labour market, reform, commodity, regulatory, employment, unemployment
JEL Classification: I30, J21, J23, K00, K31
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation