Author Description

Analyzing labour market trends in sub-Saharan Africa over the last three decades, this engaging volume employs data collated from the International Labor Organization (ILO), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and World Bank (the RPED Surveys). It examines the economics of the labour market against the persistent decline in real wages over some twenty years in many of these countries. Setting the African story against the background of wage-employment trends in other regions of the world, the author proceeds to examine the impact of this decline on the rural-urban earnings gap. The consequences of the declining wage levels on the lifetime earnings of workers and on trends in labour productivity are then discussed followed by a detailed analysis of the employment and wage structure in African manufacturing firms. Unique in its field, this scholarly work will appeal to academic institutions world-wide, as well as to policy makers and other professionals interested in developing countries in general and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Author Dipak Mazumdar, Dr, Research Associate, Department of Economics and Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, Canada and Ata Mazaheri, Lecturer, University of Toronto, CanadaWelfare State and Democracy in Crisis.