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Recent research has shown growing shares of employment in the social economy (or non-profit sector) both in the European Union and in the United States. In the EU, there seems to be growing hopes that the social economy will be capable of contributing to local progress on the unemployment issue in crisis regions. This paper analyses employment in certain entrepreneurial forms, usually considered belonging to the social economy, in Sweden during the 1990s. The results show considerable regional differences of employment in the social economy, but also that its share of the labor market is very limited. The effect of social-economic organizations on employment, therefore, is probably mainly indirect in as much as they function as platforms for cooperation between firms or else as embryos for enterprises by strengthening local entrepreneurship and helping to nurture a deposit of social capital which has visible effects on private business and jobs. However, these effects need more detailed examinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we demonstrate that because of stagnating wages and rising job insecurity, there has been a change in the labor supply regime in the U.S. macroeconomy since the 1970s. There is now greater labor supply at any given officially measured unemployment rate. This induced growth in the quantity of labor effort is coming from experienced, incumbent workers and therefore does not show up in the official unemployment rate. While this may diminish family and community life, the increased aggregate labor supply means rising aggregate demand is being absorbed even at unemployment rates of less than 5 percent without sparking inflationary pressures. Because of this upward structural trend in weekly hours, monetary policy authorities must now recognize that standard jobless measures have become a misleading gauge of available labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the report entitled "The Extent of Material Hardship and Poverty in the United States," by Robert E. Rector and colleagues that was previously published in "Review of Social Economy" journal. The report focused on difficulties in defining and measuring income and poverty. The author considers that "reporting shortfall" is an incorrect characterization of discrepancy because the income measures are not directly comparable.

This article introduces the Review of Social Economy symposium on the basic income guarantee (BIG). It argues that there are several ways in which the BIG is consistent with social economics. First, the BIG is an attempt to meet the minimum material needs of US citizens and contribute to the common good. Second, important arguments for a BIG move beyond the positive-normative dichotomy. Finally, the BIG would help individuals function as social citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American Academic medicine--the system of education and research that trains the coming generations of physicians, produces new basic and clinical biomedical research and provides the medical safety net in many U.S. urban areas--is in a funding crisis. This essay lays out an historical and analytical account of the institutions, functions and funding mechanisms of this enterprise. The objective is to interpret the forces that led to the current impasse in which the medical education establishment now finds itself, and what the future is likely to hold as the forces of budgetary stringency and market competition continue to accelerate. A comprehensive review of the cross-subsidy system, its intricate relationship to the federal financing of health care and its origin in the Vannevar-Bush-inspired post-war research establishment is offered. The standpoint of economic theory is then taken to suggest that the intertwined functions of academic medicine be viewed from two perspectives. One, it can be viewed as a financially unnecessary mix of public and private goods. Two, it is an institutional framework for joint production that evolved under the post-Flexner, post-Bush era reforms of scientific medicine, but which now may be in need of modifications to its mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues concerning organ procurement and transplantation in the United States are described and related to the Canadian health care environment. Although the United States has a national organ procurement system and national transplant guidelines are in place, many complications exist regarding the allocation of organ transplant services. Current proposals to increase organ donation are critiqued and new guidelines are proposed for the organ transplantation system. These guidelines help to protect the right of access to these health resources among the socially or economically disadvantaged. Given the similarities between the United States and Canada in terms of population demographics and medical treatment protocols, these guidelines are applicable to both countries in order to more appropriately blend economic and ethical criteria to allocate organ transplantation services more efficiently and effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion on the contribution of household labor and the family towards the macroeconomic stability of the United States during the postwar period from 1940s-1990s. It cites that household labor has the potential to promote human communication, nutrition, emotional development, preparation for work, population growth, consumption, a latent reserve army of labor, total labor time, and work transfer in supermarkets. It also examines the theoretical foundations of household labor that affect institutional stability, the historical function of household labor in the postwar era, and the contradictions within the family which affected socioeconomic reproduction.

The article presents a discussion on the role of institutions in the control and inefficiency of capitalist production. It offers a clarification of the terms and arguments associated with the claim that capitalist control of production leads to economic inefficiency. It also presents the suggestive evidence that supports the claim in an institutional analysis of postwar labor-management relations in the United States. It discusses the meaning of the terms "control" and 'inefficiency" in capitalist production and suggests that an approach which focuses on institutional features of the employment relation is required to respond adequately to various criticisms.

The article criticizes on the contemporary consumption article by Richard McIntyre in the U.S. McIntyre finally appeals to an approach which proceeds by seeing utility and price as mutually conditioning. The second unusual aspect of the conclusion wedding price to utility as explanatory factors is while price is broadly a socially and historically specific category, germane to commodity producing societies which is an entirely historical and social category. Karl Marx's contribution to the understanding of consumption is limited because he was not interested in it as such and since his main concern was the appropriation and distribution of surplus labor time.