‘Each chapter is tidily and logically sectionalised. Text-boxes highlight key features of any given system, such as the voluntaristic tradition in the UK, the central role of state involvement in France, the strength of German employers' associations, or the scala mobile inflation-adjustment mechanism in Italy. The tables covering single countries in the chapters themselves are supplemented by a table appendix providing comparative data for all the countries on 30 or so dimensions. I estimate the bibliography at just under 600 items, most of them very or fairly recent, with what a quick sampling suggests is a very high degree of documentary accuracy.... What a staggering people the Dutch are when it come to languages! If only some of us wrote so fluently in English as this team does. Multiple library copies all round please, and a three-star rating on reading lists' - BUIRA Newsletter