Decent Work: Concept, Theory and Measurement

This book introduces readers to the concept and theories of decent work and provides a framework for measuring it at the micro, meso and macro level in a given country. Further, it addresses the importance of measuring decent work in today’s world and in connection with the different challenges countries face depending on their respective stage of development.

The essence of the book lies in highlighting the practical applications of decent work in terms of its ability to deliver empirical measurements of qualitative and subjective phenomena with a mixed-methods approach combining tools and techniques from economics and statistics. Moreover, as the applicability of decent work is not confined to the IT industry and formal sectors of the economy, the book also provides useful guidelines on how further empirical studies can be undertaken to measure decent work in non-IT industries. As such, the book offers a rich compilation of empirical and theoretical contributions ondecent work designed to not only enrich readers’ understanding, but also promote awareness of the practical relevance and technical aspects of the subject matter.

Nausheen Nizami is an Assistant Professsor of Economics in Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), India, prior to which, she was affiliated to the University of Delhi for about 5 years. She has a doctorate in Economics from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). She has earlier published a book on decent work and has also written units on Economic Reforms in India, Cluster Analysis, Foundations for Qualitative research for IGNOU’s self-learning material for MA (Economics) programme and has also contributed to a research paper in the Indian Journal of Labour Economics (published by Springer). She has been invited as speaker in national conferences and has presented papers in various seminars held in Delhi. Labour economics, human development, econometrics and industrial economics are her areas of interest.

Narayan Prasad, Professor of Economics in School of Social Sciences of IGNOU, has been associated with the university since 1992. Apart from academic position as Professor of Economics, he has also contributed to IGNOU as Director, Research Unit and Director, Academic Coordination Division and Member Secretary of the Research Council. He has contributed more than 25 research papers in reputed national and international journals and has completed four research projects financially sponsored by UGC and ICSSR. He has authored three books, one of which is on decent work, co-authored by Nausheen, and published by SAGE Publications India. Another book titled ‘Assessment of Human Well-being: A Multi-dimensional Approach in India’ is in process. He has designed and developed an innovative course on ‘Research Methods in Economics’ for MA Economics Programme. He visited France under Indo-French Cultural Exchange Programme for his post-doctoral work and also delivered several lectures at various places including New York, Washington and Los Angeles in USA. Currently, he is teaching research methodology and human development courses to MPhil and PhD students.