Overview
- Promotes formalizing the equivalence of money for labor
- Applies money theory to the value of labor
- Proposes that full employment will help define a functioning labor standard
Part of the book series: Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity (GISP)
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
About this book
The contributors to this edited collection argue that a flexible Job Guarantee program able to react to an economy’s fluctuating need for work would stabilize the labor standard, the value of employment in relation to money. During economic downturns, the program would expand to provide more public sector jobs in response to private sector layoffs. It would then contract when economic growth offered private sector employment opportunities. This flexible full employment program would create a balanced, perpetually active labor force, providing the macroeconomic stability necessary to define a functioning labor standard.
Just as the gold standard measured the worth of money against gold reserves, John Maynard Keynes argued, so a labor standard ought to measure the value of money in terms of its labor equivalent. However, he failedto account for the fact that, unlike a gold standard, a labor standard does not have any kind of surety that money will continue to match its value in paid work over time. Together, the contributors argue that full employment would provide this missing security and allow authorities to define the value equivalencies of money and labor, the way that money once represented its exact equivalent in gold.
Just as the gold standard measured the worth of money against gold reserves, John Maynard Keynes argued, so a labor standard ought to measure the value of money in terms of its labor equivalent. However, he failedto account for the fact that, unlike a gold standard, a labor standard does not have any kind of surety that money will continue to match its value in paid work over time. Together, the contributors argue that full employment would provide this missing security and allow authorities to define the value equivalencies of money and labor, the way that money once represented its exact equivalent in gold.
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
Table of contents (9 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Back Matter
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Michael J. Murray is Associate Professor of Economics at Bemidji State University, USA, and a Research Scholar at the Binzagr Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. He co-edits the American Review of Political Economy and is co-editor of four volumes on the job guarantee. Murray's research focuses on public policies targeting the dual problems of unemployment and poverty. He also studies production theory, structural and technological change, and its impacts on employment.
Mathew Forstater is Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA; Research Director at the Binzagr Institute for Sustainable Prosperity; and Research Associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, USA. He is engaged in projects on employment and federal budget policy, using a historical, interdisciplinary approach to examine the potential role of full employment policies in the face of deficit reduction and continuous technological change.
Contributors
Lorenzo Esposito, Bank of Italy, Milan, Italy
Scott Fullwiler, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA
Rohan Grey, Columbia Law School, USA
James Juniper, University of Newcastle, Australia
Fadhel Kaboub, Denison University, USA
Giuseppe Mastromatteo, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy
Scott L.B. McConnell, Eastern Oregon University, USA
William Mitchell, University of Newcastle, Australia
Edward J. Nell, The New School, USA
Timothy P. Sharpe, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Martin J. Watts, University of Newcastle, Australia
Mathew Forstater is Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA; Research Director at the Binzagr Institute for Sustainable Prosperity; and Research Associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, USA. He is engaged in projects on employment and federal budget policy, using a historical, interdisciplinary approach to examine the potential role of full employment policies in the face of deficit reduction and continuous technological change.
Contributors
Lorenzo Esposito, Bank of Italy, Milan, Italy
Scott Fullwiler, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA
Rohan Grey, Columbia Law School, USA
James Juniper, University of Newcastle, Australia
Fadhel Kaboub, Denison University, USA
Giuseppe Mastromatteo, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy
Scott L.B. McConnell, Eastern Oregon University, USA
William Mitchell, University of Newcastle, Australia
Edward J. Nell, The New School, USA
Timothy P. Sharpe, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Martin J. Watts, University of Newcastle, Australia
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Job Guarantee and Modern Money Theory
Book Subtitle: Realizing Keynes’s Labor Standard
Editors: Michael J. Murray, Mathew Forstater
Series Title: Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46442-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-46441-1Published: 06 February 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-83522-8Published: 03 May 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-46442-8Published: 25 January 2017
Series ISSN: 2730-5511
Series E-ISSN: 2730-552X
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXI, 228
Number of Illustrations: 5 b/w illustrations, 12 illustrations in colour
Topics: Labor Economics, Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods, Economic Policy