In building a model, Dooley and Prause carefully sculpt the scope and definition of their research. Using a modified version of the Labor Utilization Framework, they define inadequate employment using both the official Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) form of discouraged workers and unemployment as well as additional categories, such as involuntary part-time work, and poverty-level pay. The framework for their model is the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a long-term panel design study sponsored by the BLS.

While this book is highly technical in nature, the authors are kind enough to brief the reader on both economics and psychology concepts. Integral to their research is a firm foundation on the causal process. Dooley and Prause explore three mechanisms that create statistical association. The authors are careful in each of their investigations to control for confounding variables. They then proceed to explain the results, bifurcating between social causation and selection, where possible.

Throughout The Social Costs of Underemployment: Inadequate Employment as Disguised Unemployment, readers will find surprising results. For instance, by large majorities, people in all types of economically inadequate employment report liking their jobs. Job satisfaction, they report however, does not prevent the adverse effects of economic underemployment. The authors dissect the results, identifying the specific effects of inadequate employment on groups of individuals. As part of the worker detail, they include gender, marital status, and education levels.

In researching effects, the authors explore the role inadequate employment has on self-esteem, alcoholism, depression, welfare transitions, and in women, the birth weight of their child. Each chapter is set up as a separate experiment, and the results all hold their own surprises. For instance, on the chapter on depression, the authors write, "the beneficial effect on having employment (either adequate employment or inadequate employment) was greater for those who lost a spouse than for others."

At the conclusion of the book, Dooley and Prause are circumspect, weighing the realities of politics, budgets, and perhaps most importantly, a lack of interest in broader measures of employment classifications. In an objective appeal, the authors write, "The social costs of job loss have helped to sensitize employers and governments to the human and political problems of unemployment." "The present findings argue for expanding the usual paradigm of research on unemployment that contrasts people with and without jobs."

While it would be a stretch to call it an easy cover-to-cover reading, considering the calculations and detail involved, this book is engaging, balanced, and refreshingly FREE of stump oratory.

Charlotte Yee

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