The role of trust in vertical contractual relationships between firms in Britain, Germany, and Italy is investigated with a survey of over sixty firms. After a review of the literature in which the nature of trust is discussed and set against a background of social norms and legal systems, data...

In conventional economic theory, a trade-off supposedly exists between social justice and economic efficiency. In reality, market and other economic institutions are dominated by power relations, so that the sponsorship of social justice is a productive factor. Neo-liberal economic policies, by...

The neoliberal policy of deregulation has failed to bring about significant improvements in the efficiency of the labor market in Britain. Cuts in social protection and legal constraints upon collective bargaining have contributed to growing inequalities in income and security of employment,...

This paper examines empirically the evolution of the customary standard of life and how this relates to real wages and economic development. Its starting point is Sraffa's reintroduction of the classical notion of wages as the cost of reproducing labour, so that they are necessarily a charge on...