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Savings in the Modern Economy
A Symposium
Walter Heller
University of Minnesota Press, 1953
Savings in the Modern Economy was first published in 1953. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.How will savings affect the future economy of the United States and other parts of the world? Will savings continue to aid economy expansion or will they lead, sooner or later, to difficult problems? What are the motivations that cause people to save? How has the pattern of saving changed in recent times? What is the effect of retirement and pension funds? What is the role of savings in periods of inflation? In economy depression? How can savings foster economy progress in underdeveloped countries?To provide a scholarly yet thoroughly practical basis for answers to questions like these, a group of distinguished economists pool their thinking in this volume. The series of 28 papers bring to the problem varied backgrounds and different viewpoints. Professors, bankers, government officials, and industrialists, representing national and international organizations and business enterprises, contribute papers and related comments. There is not always agreement in the discussion, and no quick and easy solutions are offered, but the resulting analysis is realistic and timely, yet long-range in approach and value.The material covers four broad topics: savings and economic policy; savings concepts, data, and behavior; the savings problem in underdeveloped countries (with specific reference to the Far East and Latin America); and savings and inflation.The volume is based on papers given at a conference on Savings, Inflation, and Economy Progress held at the University of Minnesota through the cooperation of the university’s School of Business Administration and a number of sponsoring business firms.
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front cover of You’re Paid What You’re Worth
You’re Paid What You’re Worth
And Other Myths of the Modern Economy
Jake Rosenfeld
Harvard University Press, 2020

“This is the book to throw at your human resources director—not literally, of course—when any attempt is being made to bamboozle you about how decisions on pay have been made…It is a closely argued, thoroughly researched treatise on how we got here and how pay could be both fairer and more effective as a reward.”
—Stefan Stern, Financial World

“A flat-out revelation of a book by one of the nation’s top scholars of the labor market…required reading for anyone who cares about the future of work in America.”
—Matthew Desmond, author of Poverty, by America

“Jake Rosenfeld pulls back the curtain on the multifaceted cultural, institutional, and market forces at play in wage-setting. This timely book illuminates the power dynamics and often arbitrary forces that have contributed to the egregious inequality in the U.S. labor market—and then lays out a clear blueprint for progressive change.”
—Thea Lee, President of the Economic Policy Institute

Job performance and where you work play a role in determining pay, but judgments of productivity and value are highly subjective. What makes a lawyer more valuable than a teacher? How do you measure the output of a police officer, a professor, or a reporter? Why, in the past few decades, did CEOs suddenly become hundreds of times more valuable than their employees? The answers lie not in objective criteria but in battles over interests and ideals.

Four dynamics are paramount: power, inertia, mimicry, and demands for equity. Power struggles legitimize pay for particular jobs, and organizational inertia makes that pay seem natural. Mimicry encourages employers to do what their peers are doing. And workers are on the lookout for practices that seem unfair. Jake Rosenfeld shows us how these dynamics play out in real-world settings, drawing on cutting-edge economics and original survey data, with an eye for compelling stories and revealing details.

You’re Paid What You’re Worth gets to the heart of that most basic of social questions: Who gets what and why?

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