Abstract
This review essay first discusses what we might learn about the nature of work and employment from scholars concerned with the recent changes in welfare legislation, changes that make children's receipt of income support dependent on their parent's work effort. It then considers the possible contributions that theory and research centered on jobs and workplaces might make to developing new policy strategies for moving families out of poverty. Economic and organizational accounts of the relationship between labor markets and the behavior of lower skilled workers are contrasted. The review considers why economists tend to take workplace and employer practices as givens, focusing on how to change workers rather than workplaces. It highlights the potential contribution that knowledge of firm-level labor markets may make to identifying new targets for policy analysis and development, specifically jobs and workplaces.
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