Economics

While heated debates persist in developed countries regarding the continuation of the minimum wage laws, they still remain popular around the world. Unemployment concerns around the minimum wage fade away when the monopsony nature of the labour market is taken into consideration. Given the distinct nature of workers earning minimum wages in low-income countries when compared to high-income ones, it remains significantly effective in tackling inequality in the former. The job polarisation because of the labour-replacing technologies of today underlines the importance of such a measure. Thus, there is still a need for minimum wage, more so for low-income countries.

Macroeconomics: An Introduction by Alex M Thomas, Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, New Delhi and Singapore: Cambridge University Press, 2021; pp xx + 234, price not indicated.

This article tries to assess how K N Raj would have weighed in on some of the major contemporary issues like the trade policy, farm crisis and reprivatisation of public sector banks on the basis of his many writings. It also highlights his views on the fundamental orientation that an academic discipline like economics needs to have for contemporary social relevance.

Pluralistic Economics and Its History edited by Ajit Sinha and Alex M Thomas, Routledge, India, 2019; pp xi + 310, ₹1,495 (hardback).