This paper is a revised version of an Economic History thesis submitted to the London School of Economics in September 2000.The main text assumes analytical rather than chronological form, and, to avoid breaking the flow of the argument, it refers to persons, Labour Party structures and...

Economics has always had two connected faces in its Western tradition. In Adam Smith's eighteenth century, as in John Stuart Mill's nineteenth, these might be described as the science of political economy and the art of economic governance. The former aimed to describe the workings of the...

This paper examines changing patterns of labour relations innineteenth-century Brazil associated with the building of railways andexpansion of export agriculture. It addresses the 1850s-1880s period,decades when the `labour question' became a pressing issue forcontemporaries. The extinction of...

Considerable cross-sectional evidence has highlighted the lower employmentrates and earnings amongst disabled people in Britain. But very little is knownabout the progression of disabled people in employment. This study uses datafrom the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to examine the labour market...

Since April 2002 Jobcentre Plus has started to operate nationwide in the UKproviding fully integrated benefit claiming and work placement/job-seekingactivities for people of working age. This new organisation put an explicitwork-focus in the delivery of the benefit system. Along with...

Families with disabled children are susceptible to poverty because low incomeis compounded by high costs. Combing caring with employment is extremelydifficult, so families are heavily reliant upon benefits. But do disability benefitsprovide financial security for families who are susceptible to...

This paper analyses the economic disadvantage experienced by disabled personsof working-age using data from the British Household Panel Survey. We arguethat there are three sources of disadvantage among disabled persons: preexistingdisadvantage among those who become disabled (a ‘selection’...

In the past few years the informal sector in countries in transition hasincreasingly become the focus of research, public policy and the media.The term ‘informal sector’ has been used to describe an extremely widespectrum of activities, which do not necessarily have much in common,such as...