Diane Elson

the representation of labour in capitalism

Value

Radhika Balakrishnan

Economic Policy and Human Rights presents a powerful critique of three decades of neoliberal economic policies, assessed from the perspective of human rights norms. In doing so, it brings together two areas of thought and action that have hitherto been separate: progressive economics concerned with promoting economic justice and human development; and human rights analysis and advocacy. Focussing on in-depth comparative case studies of the USA and Mexico and looking at issues such as public expenditure, taxation and international trade, the book shows that heterodox economic analysis benefits greatly from a deeper understanding of a human rights framework. This is something progressive economists have often been skeptical of, regarding it as too deeply entrenched in 'Western' norms, discourses and agendas. Such a categorical rejection is unwarranted. Instead, human rights norms can provide an invaluable ethical and accountability framework, challenging a narrow focus on efficiency and growth. A vital book for anyone interested in human rights and harnessing economics to create a better world.

Holding Governments to Account

Economic Policy and Human Rights

There is a large gap between Japan’s ranking on indicators of economic development and on indicators of gender equality. This book helps us to understand why. The chapters in this volume illuminate important dimensions of gender inequality in Japan – in relation to class, and in comparison to other countries. The book considers the relation of gender inequality to neoliberal policies, and the implications of gender inequality for social reproduction. It demonstrates the ways in which leading Japanese scholars are debating and analysing these issues, in dialogue with feminist economists from Mexico and UK. The chapters in this book were originally published in The Japanese Political Economy.

Feminism and Gender Research in Japan

Brigitte Young

Isabella Bakker

Questioning Financial Governance from a Feminist Perspective brings together feminist economists and feminist political economists from different countries located in North America and Europe to analyze the ‘strategic silence’ about gender in fiscal and monetary policy, and financial regulation. This silence reflects a set of assumptions that the key instruments of financial governance are gender-neutral. This often masks the ways in which financial governance operates to the disadvantage of women and reinforces gender inequality. This book examines both the transformations in the governance of finance that predate the financial crisis, as well as some dimension of the crisis itself. The transformations increasingly involved private as well as public forms of power, along with institutions of state and civil society, operating at the local, national, regional and global levels. An important aspect of these transformations has been the creation of policy rules (often enacted in laws) that limit the discretion of national policy makers with respect to fiscal, monetary, and financial sector policies. These policy rules tend to have inscribed in them a series of biases that have gender (as well as class and race-based) outcomes. The biases identified by the authors in the various chapters are the deflationary bias, male breadwinner bias, and commodification bias, adding two new biases: risk bias and creditor bias. The originality of the book is that its primary focus is on macroeconomic policies (fiscal and monetary) and financial governance from a feminist perspective with a focus on the gross domestic product and its fluctuations and growth, paid employment and inflation, the budget surplus/deficit, levels of government expenditure and tax revenue, and supply of money. The central findings are that the key instruments of financial governance are not gender neutral. Each chapter considers examples of financial governance, and how it relates to the gender order, including divisions of labour, and relations of power and privilege. This book is key reading for anyone studying feminist economics, and should also be of interest to those researching macroeconomics, political economics and women’s studies.

Questioning Financial Governance from a Feminist Perspective

Paul Streeten

The international dimensions of the coffee problem; National coffee policy: production control and diversification; Utilization of labor; Agro-industrial units; Proposal for joint ventures; Foreigh exchange policy and diversification.

Diversification and Development: the Case of Coffee

United Nations Dept

United Nations Development Fund for Women

United Nations Development Fund for Women Staff

Peoples access to services and resources are determined by government budget policies. Gender budgets initiatives around the world have attempted to systematically examine how government budgets address discrimination with regard to womens access to housing, employment, health, education, and other services. Often these exercises have been eye-openers: A budget analysis of domestic violence policies and laws in seven countries in Latin America, for example, revealed that appropriations for domestic violence programs and interventions were non-existent in cases. Similar evidence of gender discrimination is found when examining taxation policies. This publication adds a landmark to the discourse on the link between human rights standards and government budgets. It elaborates on how budgets and budget policy making processes can be monitored for compliance with human rights standards, in particular with the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Combining substantive analysis with country examples, the publication explores how a rights-based budget analysis can be applied to public expenditure, public revenue, macroeconomics of the budget, and budget decision-making.

Monitoring Government Budgets for Compliance with CEDAW

Budgeting for Women's Rights

Devaki Jain

Harvesting Feminist Knowledge for Public Policy brings together 14 essays by feminist thinkers from different parts of the world, reflecting on the flaws in the current patterns of development and arguing for political, economic, and social changes to promote equality and sustainability. The contributors argue that the very approach being taken to understand and measure progress, and plan for and evaluate development, needs rethinking in ways that draw on the experiences and knowledge of women. All the essays, in diverse ways, offer proposals for alternative ideas to address the limitations and contradictions of currently dominant theories and practices in development, and move towards the creation of a socially just and egalitarian world.

Rebuilding Progress

Harvesting Feminist Knowledge for Public Policy

This republication of a long out-of-print collection of essays, first published in 1979, focuses on the elusive concept of “value.” The field of study surrounding the theory of value remains comparatively sparse in Anglophone circles, and the essays here aim to answer the question, “Why is Marx’s theory of value important?”

Diane Elson

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