The investigation explores the impact that changing economies have had and will continue to have upon Human Resources Development (HRD)--the collective body responsible for training and retraining labor--and from that perspective offers recommendations to improve the impact HRD has upon society. The challenge for HRD is to recognize the economic,…

Contends that it is widely believed that cheap labor in poor countries attracts foreign investors. Asserts that historical evidence indicates that past patterns of direct foreign investment in poor countries are inconsistent with the cheap-labor argument. Includes two figures and one table. (CFR)

Contends that unemployment is an example of market failure. Argues that explaining unemployment from this supply-demand approach is preferable to the traditional explanation that high "real wages" are the cause. Reveals that many prominent economists entered the field because of their concern for the social problems caused by…

Describes an undergraduate economics course experiment designed to teach the concepts of comparative advantage and opportunity costs. Students have a limited number of labor hours and can chose to produce either wheat or steel. As the project progresses, the students trade commodities in an attempt to maximize use of their labor hours. (MJP)

The nine papers in this monograph, written by members of the University Council for Research in Human Resource Development, respond to the following questions: What is the most important organizational issue of the 1990s, and what human resource development (HRD) research questions might be generated from this issue? The papers are as follows: (1)…