Labour, Poverty, and Development provides rigorous economic analysis with the necessary theoretical underpinnings, detailing the causes, effects, and implications of the current situation in the developing world. Bringing together some of the world's foremost experts on development, the volume concentrates on three main areas: the relationship between employment, growth, and trade; the growth of urban labor; and the position in rural areas.

Does decentralization work in practice? Does it strengthen local level democracy and economic development? This book examines these questions by analyzing the experience of seven medium sized cities in Colombia and Chile. The authors draw on extensive fieldwork involving numerous interviews with actors at all levels and from all sectors. The result is a unique test, at the local level in Latin America, of the outcome of reforms to the institutional structure of government.