The snow looked lovely today, although I'm sure it won't look as good if we get a few feet dumped on us tomorrow. While enjoying the temporary reprieve I read some books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!
First was "Tasks, Skills, and Institutions," edited by Carlos Manuel Gradín Lago, Piotr Lewandowski, Simone Schotte, and Kunal Sen. This book is a compilation of studies of different developing country income and job distributions, mostly laying out the raw data and some light statistical analyses that use O*NET job categorizations to investigate the degree to which increasing inequality is due to valued skill disparities. Most chapters are a litany of tables, with the notable exception of the excellent chapter on India by Saloni Khurana and Kanika Mahajan. If you need data on jobs and income this is a good volume https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/63650
Next was "Law School for Everyone: Constitutional Law" by Eric Berger. Berger reviews the standard neoliberal-era interpretation of the Constitution and related major cases in the Supreme Court, albeit with very limited coverage of the most glaring miscarriages of justice. This is still useful if you're unfamiliar with this reading, as it shows how far the modern court has moved from these basic tenets. The surface level history here is problematic, as Berger is unwilling to confront or analyze the depths to which Native American dispossession, slavery, and white supremacy more broadly has been baked into the Constitution and related jurisprudence. It's also notable how dated these not-particularly-old lectures feel given how the current administration and Supreme Court go against nearly everything discussed here. One hopes this will once again be useful in the future https://shop.thegreatcourses.com/law-school-for-everyone-constitutional-law
Last was "Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers’ Integration in European Labour Markets," edited by Veronica Federico and Simone Baglioni. This collection provides tremendous insight into the policies of different European countries towards migrants and refugees and their track records, with a particular focus on the labor market. There is some comparative analysis here, but the chapters on specific countries are where this book shines, providing deep context on a somewhat representative sample of European countries. This isn't exhaustive, as there are notable exceptions (Germany stands out), but one gets a good sense of how different actors in the EU, Scandinavia, and EU-adjacent countries (UK and Switzerland) are crafting policies. If you're looking to understand the landscape here, or are a practitioner looking into jurisdictions to set up operations, this is a great book to pick up. Highly recommend https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-67284-3
