Neoclassical and Sociological Perspectives on Segmented Labor Markets

Neoclassical theory has been misrepresented in the segmented economy literature. Consequently, most tests of quot;structuralquot; vs. quot;neoclassicalquot; models are inadequate. Moreover, segmented economy theorists have concentrated on the least significant departures of segmented models from neoclassical economics. In fact, neoclassical economists have developed elements of a segmented labor market model which is similar to the segmented economy theories. We sketch this model and argue that the neoclassical model gives a precise meaning to the concept of dual or segmented labor markets but does not suggest that a classification system for job characteristics must rely on a single dimension