This book offers a labour perspective on wage-setting institutions, collective bargaining and economic development. Sixteen country chapters, eight on Asia and eight on Europe, focus in particular on the role and effectiveness of minimum wages in the context of national trends in income inequality, economic development, and social security.

List of Figures and tables Preface and Ackowledgements Notes on Contributors List of Abbreviations 1. Asia: A Comparative Perspective (Maarten van Klaveren) 2. China (Yongjian Hu) 3. Vietnam (Dang Quang Dieu and Thi Thuong Dong) 4. Korea (Maarten van Klaveren and Tae-Hyun Kim) 5. Japan (Hansjörg Herr) 6. Pakistan (Karamat Ali, Zeenat Hisam and Sohail Javed) 7. India (Biju Varkkey) 8. Indonesia (Surya Tjandra and Maarten van Klaveren) 9. Thailand (Sakdina Chatrakul Na Ayudhya) 10. Europe: A Comparative Perspective (Maarten van Klaveren and Thorsten Schulten) 11. France (Michel Husson, Estelle Sommeiller and Catherine Vincent) 12. Italy (Salvo Leonardi and Riccardo Sanna) 13. Germany (Thorsten Schulten and Reinhard Bispinck) 14. The Netherlands (Maarten van Klaveren and Kea Tijdens) 15. The Nordic Countries (Line Eldring and Kristin Alsos) 16. Central and Eastern Europe (Bela Galgoczi) 17. The United Kingdom (Rupert Griffin and Denis Gregory) 18. The Russian Federation (Elena Gerasimova and Anna Bolsheva) Statistical Appendix: Comparative Statistics Index