The Chilean Labor Market

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-2

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2. Introduction: Model Performance or Precarious Employment?

   • Kirsten Sehnbruch

   Pages 3-20

3. Employment in the Development Context: The Contribution of the Capability Approach

   • Kirsten Sehnbruch

   Pages 21-45

4. The Never-Ending Story of Labor Market Reform

   • Kirsten Sehnbruch

   Pages 47-71

5. The Characteristics of Employment in Chile

   • Kirsten Sehnbruch

   Pages 73-111

6. The Development of the Chilean Labor Market

   • Kirsten Sehnbruch

   Pages 113-140

7. Legislation versus Practical Reality: Chile’s Unemployment Insurance

   • Kirsten Sehnbruch

   Pages 141-168

8. Vocational Training: Missing the Opportunities

   • Kirsten Sehnbruch

   Pages 169-209

9. Measuring the Quality of Employment

   • Kirsten Sehnbruch

   Pages 211-238

10. Conclusions: Quality and Quantity

    • Kirsten Sehnbruch

    Pages 239-274

11. Back Matter

    Pages 275-339

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Kirsten Sehnbruch uses the case study of Chile to show the failures and inner-working of neo-liberal labour policy. She shows in detail what the real policy issue should be, namely the creation of proper institutions and of a corps of competent professionals with relevant skills and powers to operate them.

• employment
• labor market
• labor markets
• latin american politics

"Sehnbruch writes about these issues with admirable clarity: it is unusual to find work in this field which is so direct in its expression and which also puts to one side the ideological tribalism which so often clouds people's judgment. In addition to the policy importance of her work, it also has theoretical relevance, and her exposition and application of Sen's capability approach is excellent." - David Lehmann, Cambridge University"This book provides a comprehensive and hard-headed evaluation of labor markets in Chile, the country that has led Latin America in the implementation of market-oriented reforms. Sehnbruch's analysis deftly combines concerns for equity with those for market-oriented efficiency. At a time that the Washington Consensus reforms are increasingly being questioned, she takes on one of the least understood yet most important challenges to achieving sustainable growth in the region: the widespread need for more and better quality jobs. Her work makes important contributions to our understanding of the challenges and the potential solutions, and its lessons extend well beyond the Chilean case." - Carol Graham, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution; and Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland'Understanding the way that the labour market works is crucial in our assessment of the much-vaunted Chilean economic model, and also more broadly of the quality of democracy in Chile. This book provides a sharply analytical account of that labour market and a well-informed critique of the developmental model. It is very well written, impressively researched and a scholarly contribution of real originality. It should become essential reading for understanding not only Chilean development but also the functioning of labour markets more widely. This book puts labour markets back in the centre of debates on development.'

- Alan Angell, St Antony's College, Oxford University

KIRSTEN  SEHNBRUCH teaches at the Center for Latin American Studies, University of California at Berkeley, USA.

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