In Reforming Asian Labor Systems, Frederic C. Deyo examines the implications of post-1980s market-oriented economic reform for labor systems in China, South Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. Adopting a critical institutionalist perspective, he explores the impact of elite economic interests and strategies, labor politics, institutional path dependencies, and changing economic circumstances on regimes of labor and social regulation in these four countries. Of particular importance are reform-driven socioeconomic and political tensions that, especially following the regional financial crisis of the late 1990s, have encouraged increased efforts to integrate social and developmental agendas with those of market reform.
Through his analysis of the social economy of East and Southeast Asia, Deyo suggests that several Asian countries may now be positioned to repeat what they achieved in earlier decades: a prominent role in defining new international models of development and market reform that adapt to the pressures and constraints of the evolving world economy.

建筑工人，干着最苦最累的活，却拿着最低最难要的工资。他们为城市的繁荣献出了青春、健康甚至生命。然而为了争取一点血汗钱，他们甚至需要爬上高楼寻求自杀以引起关注。房地产建筑行业作为拉动内需的龙头而备受瞩目，但这种经济增长背后疯狂的资本积累、对建筑从业人员的各种社会伤害却常常被忽视。建筑工，这个民工中规模最大、命运最惨的群体，吸引了本书作者潘毅教授及其团队的目光。两年来，他们深入工地、访谈工人并随工人返乡，访问了近百户建筑工家庭，获得了详细的第一手材料。书内，潘毅博士将通过自己的观察和分析来透视建筑业农民工阶层形成背后的故事。