This dissertation investigates the effect of the worker's fallback position on the wage determination process, specifically, on the wage slowdown in the 1980s. It is argued that the failure of the traditional wage models to account for the wage slowdown in the 1980s and some other unusual wage developments is attributable to the neglect of an important dimension in the wage determination process, namely, the worker's fallback position. The dissertation also reexamines the role of the worker's fallback position on the changing cyclical variability of wages in the postwar period. It is argued in chapter 2 that the worker's fallback position occupies a central position in the labor discipline model (and in models of bargaining). The theoretical model developed is subjected to econometric estimation with the estimates of the worker's fallback position in chapter 3. It is shown that the wage change equation, when supplemented by the fallback position, provides a superior empirical explanation for the wage slowdown in the 1980s to the traditional wage equations, which are obviously under-specified. It is argued in chapter 4 that the theoretical framework of labor discipline model is inconsistent with some hypotheses that ascribe the decline in the cyclical variability of wages to the increase in the worker's fallback position. They are not empirically confirmed, either. An alternative hypothesis which links the changes in the cyclical variability of wages to the degree of cyclicity of the fallback position is proposed and it is roughly consistent with the postwar experiences. The dissertation concludes by discussing limitations with this study and normative issues as to the worker's fallback position.

<p> Human capital is an important mechanism that influences both the migration decisions of immigrants and the rate at which immigrants assimilate in the host country. Returns to human capital could be correlated with difficult-to-observe factors such as self-selection, and legal status, and these unobservables can affect the economic assimilation of immigrants into the host country differently. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the returns to human capital for refugees and other immigrants during the first two decades after they come to the U.S. Refugees are a subset of immigrants who have different characteristics and face different constraints than other immigrants. For example, while refugees have greater legal access to the labor market, non-refugees benefit from greater ability to self-select into both migration and (pre-migration) human capital, and those relative advantages change during the years after individuals migrate. </p><p> The empirical results show that non-refugees receive a much larger crude wage return for human capital both at arrival and over time. Although the refugees&rsquo; return grows over time, they do not catch up with that of non-refugees. These findings confirm that non-refugees are not only selected on observable characteristics (as already documented in the literature) but on unobservables as well, and that the initial selection on unobservables will matter for their differential returns to human capital even after they remain a long time in the U.S. In other words, many refugees might not be well-suited for the U.S. labor market for some permanent but unobservable reasons, whereas this may not be the case for non-refugees because they would less likely move to a country for which they are poorly-suited.</p><p>

Through a Marxian critique and analysis of the Broadway musicians' union, Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, and organizational design, this dissertation presents a case study that demonstrates how class blindness leads to contradictory and often unintended results, which reinforces a general critique of particular union strategies and agendas. The theoretical approach of New Marxian Class Analysis (NMCA), developed by Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff is used to illustrate the possibility for class transformation. Through a detailed examination of the Broadway musicians' employment, this study shows how unions do not use their collective power for class transformation; moreover, radical union commentators/critics do not theorize about unions as possible agents for such class transformations. Also demonstrated is how unions can facilitate a class transformation that will increase workers' control over their working conditions and enable them to make the changes needed to improve their lives. Finally, this work proffers a proposal for a concrete class-transformative agenda and suggestions how it may be extended to other union workers.

The practice of using the labor of inmates in state and Federal prisons to produce commodities has expanded rapidly in recent years, paralleling the growth of the number of people incarcerated. Last year, prisoners in state and Federal institutions in the U.S. produced over $2 billion worth of commodities, both goods and services. In addition, prisoners performed various acts of labor such as food preparation, maintenance, laundry, and cleaning—forms of labor which, though necessary for the operation of every prison—do not produce commodities with market prices. A conservative estimate places the value of these goods and services at $9 billion. This dissertation analyzes the organization of prison labor and the increasingly important prison industries producing saleable commodities; in particular, we focus on the division between the products of prison labor consumed by the inmates and that appropriated from them by the prison authorities for other uses. This research yields the striking conclusion that the basic organization of prison labor in the U.S. today most closely resembles a form of slavery. Inmates are compelled by economic, cultural, and political forces to enter into this prison slavery, where the products of their labor are taken by others both inside and outside the prison. The effects of prison slavery on both the inmates who are enslaved as well as on American society as a whole are also explored. We find that as the prison has been transformed over the last 150 years by social movements, legal changes, and economic forces, so too has prison slavery. We also find that these social changes have allowed slavery to continue and even to expand in American society, despite the Civil War and the abolition of slavery outside prisons. The enslavement of inmates threatens the legitimacy of the criminal justice system, since slavery is widely seen as an ethically unacceptable form of labor. This loss of legitimacy may lead to increased criminal behavior.

In this dissertation, I try to understand processes of dispossession and exclusion within a class-focused Marxian framework grounded in the epistemological position of overdetermination. The Marxian concept of primitive accumulation has become increasingly prominent in contemporary discussions on these issues. The dominant reading of “primitive accumulation” in the Marxian tradition is historicist, and consequently the notion itself remains outside the field of Marxian political economy. The contemporary literature has de-historicized the concept, but at the same time missed Marx’s unique class-perspective. Based on a non-historicist reading of Marx, I argue that primitive accumulation—i.e. separation of direct producers from means of production in non-capitalist class processes—is constitutive of capitalism and not a historical process confined to the period of transition from pre-capitalism to capitalism. I understand primitive accumulation as one aspect of a more complex (contradictory) relation between capitalist and non-capitalist class structure which is subject to uneven development and which admit no teleological universalization of any one class structure. Thus, this dissertation claims to present a notion of primitive accumulation theoretically grounded in the Marxian political economy. In particular, the dissertation problematizes the dominance of capital over a heterogeneous social formation and understands primitive accumulation as a process which simultaneously supports and undermines such dominance. At a more concrete level, I apply this new understanding of primitive accumulation to a social formation—consisting of “ancient” and capitalist enterprises—and consider a particular conjuncture where capitalist accumulation is accompanied by emergence and even expansion of a “surplus population” primarily located in the “ancient” economy. Using these theoretical arguments, I offer an account of postcolonial capitalism in India, distinguishing between two different regimes—(1) the dirigiste planning regime and (2) the laissez-faire regime. I argue that both regimes had to grapple with the problem of surplus population, as the capitalist expansion under both regimes involved primitive accumulation. I show how small peasant agriculture, traditional non-capitalist industry and informal “ancient” enterprises (both rural and urban) have acted as “sinks” for surplus population throughout the period of postcolonial capitalist development in India. Keywords: primitive accumulation, surplus population, postcolonial capitalism