Containing 23 original essays, this volume reviews the course of labour economics over more than two centuries since the publication of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations". It fully examines the contending theories, changing environmental contexts, evolving issues, and varied policies affecting labour's participation in the economy. Beginning with George P. Schultz, who provides the foreword, the contributors are among the most distinguished in labour economics and industrial relations. These essays apply the ideas for which they are best known. Highlights include John T. Dunlop on internal labour markets, John Kenneth Galbraith on power relationships in the economy, Robert M. Solow on explanation of unemployment, Jacob Mincer on human capital, Lloyd G. Reynolds on labour in developing countries, Richard A. Lester on wage differentials, Edward F. Denison on productivity, Richard Freeman on union/non-union differentials, F. Ray Marshall on human resource development, and Thomas A. Kochan on policy making. While the intellectual framework of the book looks partly to the past - explaining the labour factors in classical and neoclassical systems - its emphasis is on contemporary problems that will figure prominently in future developments, such as the operation of internal labour markets, dispute resolution, concession bargaining, equal employment opportunity and individual labour contracting. This book is intended to be of use to students and scholars of labour economics.