Manufacturing Advantage: Why High-Performance Work Systems Pay off

participation in Quebec over the period 197993. Their detailed analysis of welfare entries, exits, and duration marks an important contribution to our understanding of participation dynamics. Also on the topic of social assistance, Constantine Kapsalis studies how benefit rate changes affect the employment rate of lone mothers. This work is in response to significant changes in benefit rates in Ontario in recent years. The author finds that a $1,000 increase in benefit rates reduces the employment rate of lone mothers by 1-2%. The final essay in this volume, by MarieTherese Chicha, considers the impact of structural changes in the labor market on the effectiveness of laws promoting workplace gender equality. There are two such classes of legislation in Canada: employment equity legislation and pay equity legislation. By considering the challenges posed by labor market transformations for these policies, this essay greatly informs the policy debate surrounding such legislation. Overall, the breadth of topics considered in Women and Work makes it an important contribution to our understanding of the effect of labor market structural change on women's labor market outcomes. The book will be of particular value to those interested in the Canadian policy environment. However, researchers and policy-makers in other countries will also find Women and Work a valuable source of information on how women's labor market outcomes are affected by technological change, organizational change, and various institutions, especially unions. Finally, authors from all countries will find Women and Work a source of interesting case studies of women's experiences with social assistance programs.