Mohammed Sharif - Work Behavior of the Worlds Poor: Theory, Evidence and Policy

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WORK BEHAVIOR OF THE WORLDS POOR

In memory of my mother
Nasima Khatun
whose unflinching concern for the less fortunate
and
unwavering determination for justice
gave me the best education I got

Work Behavior of the Worlds Poor

Theory, Evidence and Policy

MOHAMMED SHARIF

University of Rhode Island, USA

First published 2003 by Ashgate Publishing

Reissued 2018 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright Mohammed Sharif 2003

Mohammed Sharif has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer

The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.

A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 2002027910

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-71995-8 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 978-1-315-19402-8 (ebk)

Contents

by Professor Paul P. Streeten

With Gilbert S. Suzawa and Carole F. Miller

Professor Paul P. Streeten

Professor-Emeritus, Boston University
and Editor-in-Chief, World Development

It gives me great pleasure to write this foreword to Dr. Mohammed Sharifs fine book. I have been an admirer of his work for many years, in fact ever since he took his Ph.D. degree at Boston University, and I think that it deserves wide attention. His continuing concern for poor people is greatly to his credit. Many scholars turn from one subject to another, guided by their changing interests or by academic fads and fashion or by pressures from superiors or colleagues. But Dr. Sharifs writings have continued to be concerned with the fate of poor people.

Sharifs ideas on labor supply are an excellent example of a combination of fine analytical work with a sensible use of statistics and empirical findings. They impress me particularly for two reasons. First, he succeeds in using data on wages and hours worked in an ingenious manner to establish a thesis that is normally argued in much more general terms (or altogether rejected), viz. that below a certain wage level poor workers have to supply more hours (distress selling of labor) at the expense of resting. He thereby gives substantial empirical backing to his theoretical treatment.

Secondly, he produces a utility function and choices between rest and food, thereby establishing an analytical basis for his labor supply curve. This double attempt of laying analytical foundations and illuminating them by statistical data is very impressive. His work is built on this foundation.

Chapter six on Working Poor Unemployment and Wage RigidityEvidence of Economic Distress is an interesting extension of his work on the forward falling supply curve of labor and a convincing demonstration of the reasons for a combination of downward rigidity of wages with involuntary unemployment. Chapter seven on Forward Falling Labor SupplyImplications for Wage Rigidity, Unemployment, and Plan Failure is along similar lines and an extension of this work. The other chapters also show the application and deepening of his ideas. The book demonstrates Sharifs ability to digest and assimilate a large mass of empirical and statistical material and to present it lucidly and critically. And his cool head is combined with a warm heart.

My debt is to many people who helped me in various ways towards the development of my ideas and their formulation into concrete shapes. The first in this list is my widowed mother who raised me along with my five siblings on the income of a small farm. It was her great courage and determination and deep faith in God that made her give me the best education by her actionsalways standing by the needy and the helpless, rushing to nurse the people sick even with contagious diseases, such as cholera and small pox, standing to support the weak and the oppressed against the powerful, and dealing with everybody with concern for fairness and justice. All these opened my eyes to the surrounding world and made me observe the condition of the less fortunate with a keen eye. This book is a result of the insight I gained thus.

It was my dissertation adviser Professor Michael Manove at Boston University, who helped this insight turn to reality by accepting my ideas, considered unrealistic by many, worth pursuing for research. But for this support, my intuitive ideas based on observation of the real world would have probably died under the accusation of being unconventional and, therefore, untenable. No less important is the support I continuously received from two great personalities of our professionProfessors Paul Streeten and Amartya Sen. The encouragement and support I received from both of them is beyond professional courtesy; my debt to them is enormous.

My colleague Professor John Burkett helped me in many ways in presenting my ideaspatiently reading many drafts of my works, providing critical reviews, and recommending important directions for improvements. I am very grateful to him.

Thanks are due to my family and my children who ungrudgingly accepted the sufferings of my inattention while I was pursuing the research; this work is to a large extent theirs.

Mr. Brendan George at Ashgate suggested the title of the book I adopted. Many more people helped me in the process of this work; I would like to thank them all. However, the errors and shortcomings that remain in this work are mine only.

CES	Constant Elasticity of Substitution
DCs	Developed Countries
FAO	Food and Agriculture Organization
GDP	Gross Domestic Product
GNP	Gross National Product
IES	Increasing Elasticity of Substitution
ILO	International Labor Office
LDCs	Less Developed Countries
LS	Labor Supply
NDP	Net Domestic Product
NI	National Income
NLIN	Non-linear Least Square Regression
NSS	National Sample Survey
OLS

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