Estimation of price-cost margins and union bargaining power for Belgian manufacturing

This paper extends Hall's (1988) [Hall, R.E., 1988. The relationship between price and marginal cost in US industry, Journal of Political Economy, 96, 921–947] methodology to analyze imperfections in both the product and the labor market for firms in the Belgian manufacturing industry over the period 1988–1995. We investigate the heterogeneity in price-cost mark-up and workers' bargaining power parameters among 18 sectors within the manufacturing industry as well as the relationship between both parameters. Using a sample of more than 7000 firms, our GMM results indicate that ignoring imperfection in the labor market leads to an underestimation of the price-cost margin evaluated at perfect competition in the labor market. These findings are confirmed in the sectoral analysis. Sectors with higher workers' bargaining power typically show higher price-cost margins.     

Income Inequality: An Inter-Industry Analysis

This paper offers new evidence that inter-industry inequality has increased since the early seventies. An examination of de industrialization, segmented labor market, and international competition explanations of this increase shows that the growth of inequality is accounted for mainly by growing wage differentials among industries, notably between primacy and secondary sectors. Employment shifts out of middle-wage industries and employment and wage effects of international trade do not explain the inequality increase.     

Competition Among Middlemen When Buyers and Sellers Can Trade Directly

This paper examines competition among middlemen when sellers and buyers can trade directly. Direct trade alters the supply and demand facing the middlemen, making them interdependent, and reduces the market power of intermediaries. However, it does not alter the Stahl [1988] result that middlemen may have an incentive to “corner” the market if demand is inelastic. The model is applied to market making in financial markets, vertical integration in goods markets and to the question of bypass in utilities. This discussion suggests that cornering is most likely in markets for essential inputs and that it may enable seller collusion.     

Human Resource Management and International Trade

This article reviews recent developments in international trade theory that relate to issues of human resource management and industrial relations Some trade models with imperfectly competitive goods markets and thir liks to strategic trade and industrial policy and described. These models, results are shown to be sensitive to the incorporation of labor market imperfections. Applications of trade theory to international labor migration and human capital acquisition are also included.     

论中国工业的比较优势

成本比较优势的机制在当代国际分工和国际贸易中仍然发挥作用。中国工业的比较优势主要是劳动力资源丰富。改革开放以来，中国国际贸易的高速增长，主要得益于较好地发挥了劳动力便宜的比较优势。由于二元经济结构和地区经济发展水平上的差异将继续存在，同时由于劳动力供给大大超出劳动力的需求，中国劳动力便宜的比较优势将能够长期保持下去。但是，劳动力便宜的比较优势是相对的，在资本和技术密集型产业，这种优势并不明显。企业办社会和人浮于事等大大抵消了劳动力便宜的优势。所以，在市场竞争中，必须高度重视提高劳动生产率。制造业员工的工资水平低，虽然有利于降低企业生产成本，但也有消极作用：一是在国际贸易中，导致国民福利的流出；二是限制了低收入阶层的购买力，抑制了国内需求。逐步提高制造业工人的工资水平是必要的。     

Workers' Views of the Impact of Trade on Jobs

This article uses new data to examine how workers' perceptions of the impact of trade on jobs like theirs are related to economic variables representing their career paths, job characteristics, and local labor market conditions. We find that only 17 percent of workers think trade creates jobs. And even fewer workers (4–7 percent) in any industry think trade has created better jobs. We find that workers' perceptions do not reflect their job characteristics or the movability of their jobs. Their perceptions of trade primarily reflect local labor market conditions (hiring and separation rates) and education. The determinants of workers' perceptions of trade present a different pattern compared with their perceptions of job security.     

Globalization, Financial Crisis, and Industrial Relations: The Case of South Korea

The South Korean case shows that the globalization trend in the 1990s and the 1997–1998 financial crisis had two contrasting effects on labor rights. First, these developments resulted in negative labor market outcomes: increased unemployment, greater use of contingent workers, and widened income inequalities. On the other hand, they led international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) to play important roles in improving labor standards in Korea. Also, continued restructuring drives prompted unions to merge into industrial unions and wage strikes with increased frequency and intensity. Contrary to the common belief, the Korean case shows that globalization and intensified competition resulted in stronger and strategic responses from labor by stimulating employees' interest in and reliance on trade unionism.     

MANAGERIAL INCENTIVES AND THE PRICE EFFECTS OF MERGERS*

Most analysis of market power assumes that managers are perfect agents for shareholders. This paper relaxes that assumption. When managers of a multi‐product firm exert unobservable effort to improve product quality, there is a trade‐off between providing adequate effort incentives and ensuring sufficient price‐coordination between the product divisions. This makes some intra‐firm price competition optimal, explaining why many multi‐product firms allow for competition between divisions. When there are effort spillovers, the optimal amount of price competition can be as great as when the products are under separate ownership. Even with some profit‐sharing, intra‐firm price competition can reduce quality‐adjusted price, which has important implications for antitrust policy.     

Myopic Corporate Behaviour with Optimal Management Incentives

Existing models in which stock markets lead to corporate 'short-termism' rely on an exogenously imposed objective for top managers. This paper endogenizes both managers' concern for short-term stock prices and the resulting distortions. We show that when the manager can trade on her own account on the stock market in a way that is observable to market participants but which is not verifiable in court, shareholders will choose an incentive contract which induces a bias towards short-term returns. Consistent with recent evidence, the short-term bias is greater when the optimal contract provides low-powered management incentives.     

以营销渠道扁平化视角探析外贸型服装企业的内销战略

由于人民币持续升值、金融危机影响、外贸竞争加剧等原因,我国诸多外贸型服装企业启动了内销战略,但面对越来越成熟、竞争同样激烈的服装内销市场,从外销进军内销是希望与风险并存。涉足内销的外贸型服装企业,应该突破传统的渠道模式,以渠道扁平化为基点,挺进国内市场。     

中国劳动要素配置扭曲程度的测量

本文测算了我国及省际的劳动力资源配置扭曲程度。全国总体劳动力配置扭曲程度、城乡劳动力扭曲程度大致呈现波浪式下降,城市内劳动力扭曲程度则呈现阶段性增加的态势,城乡劳动力扭曲是导致劳动力配置扭曲的主要因素;从全国劳动力配置扭曲贡献因素来看,各产业间劳动边际生产力的差异直接反映了劳动力资源配置扭曲,而各产业内部所形成的劳动资源扭曲在总体上具有消减作用;进一步观察各产业内和产业间的扭曲状况,可见第一、三产业内劳动力资源扭曲程度长期并不高,但近年来增加态势明显,第二产业扭曲程度较高,但有下降趋势,而部门间的扭曲程度则呈现缓慢增长特点。从省际来看,各省份总体和城乡劳动力扭曲程度呈下降趋势,而城市则呈现增加态势,在扭曲特点上,一方面存在收敛性特点,另一方面又存在东部、中部和西部地区差别。进一步将人力资本因素考虑进去,可以发现,我国劳动力资源配置扭曲程度会有所下降。通过上面的研究,可以得到一些有益的政策启示。     

Under the Cover of Antidumping: Does Administered Protection Facilitate Domestic Collusion?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that domestic firms can use the antidumping petition process to engage in collusion and increase domestic prices. In this paper, I test whether the antidumping petition process itself can help domestic firms raise prices. I propose a method to identify whether firms in the industry experience a structural break in the level of market power possessed by the firms at the time that they file their antidumping petition. I use this methodology to analyze the impact of antidumping petitions on competition levels in two industries. I find little evidence that either of these industries increased their market power following the filing of petitions for trade relief, nor even from the protection that resulted from these petitions. These findings suggest that the widespread belief that antidumping leads to more market power may not always hold.     

Competition and the signaling role of prices

In a market where sellers are heterogeneous with respect to the quality of their good and are more informed than buyers, high quality sellers' chances to trade might depend on their ability to inform buyers about the quality of the goods they offer. We study how the strength of competition among sellers affects the ability of sellers of high quality goods to achieve communication by means of appropriate pricing decisions in the context of a market populated by a large number of strategic price-setting sellers and a large number of buyers. When competition among sellers is weak high quality sellers are able to use prices as a signaling device and this enables them to trade. By contrast, strong competition among sellers inhibits the role of prices as signals of high quality, and high quality sellers are driven out of the market.     

Bargaining over employment as a firm strategic choice

This paper develops a simple model as to why unionized Cournot firms acting non-cooperatively in the product market may find it optimal to commit to bargaining outcomes with their specific union, which are off the labor demand curve, hence restricting their behavior to non-profit maximizing practices in their product markets. The prediction that power over labor conceded strategically to the union by the firm is negatively linked to union wage power is not rejected on a panel of Belgian firms as well as the prediction that the union bargaining power can be affected by product market structure and other variables affecting union wages.     

劳动关系中的集体谈判机制研究

劳动关系是劳动力市场自发调节的产物,但由于劳动者的弱势地位,市场对劳动关系的自发调节并不能达致一个高效率的劳动契约。因此,通过增强劳动者的结社力量,采用集体谈判的方式改善劳动者的工作条件,提高劳动者的经济和社会地位已成为市场经济国家调整劳动关系的主要手段。文章阐释了集体谈判机制的理论基础及其影响途径,并通过构建一般理论模型对集体谈判的作用进行了探讨。     

Industrial restructuring, 'globalisation], and the trade union response: A study of MSF in thesouth west of England

This article examines the trade union response to industrial restructuring in two sectors highly exposed to international market competition in the south west of England. The authors have conducted interviews of MSF representatives in the insurance and aerospace industries and supplemented this qualitative data with data collected from a wide questionnaire distribution.     

电力市场的合理补偿原则与核心竞争模式

在四个方面阐述了电力市场的合理补偿原则与核心竞争模式:一是电力市场中的经济补偿与核心竞争模式关系;二是不考虑网络安全限制时的竞争模式;三是考虑网络安全因素时的补偿及竞争模式;四是考虑电力市场发电资源优化配置时的补偿及竞争模式,并作出了三点结论。     

中国工业行业市场扭曲程度的测定

本文将市场扭曲界定为由于市场的不完善所导致的资源配置对帕累托最优状态的偏离,并根据其在生产可能性曲线上的不同状态,把市场扭曲分为三类:技术扭曲、产品市场的价格扭曲、要素市场的价格扭曲。在此基础之上,本文选取1996—2007年的年度数据,建立一个包含全国36个工业部门的Panel Data模型来统一测度我国工业行业市场的扭曲程度,并将数据在时间上划分为三个阶段,进一步研究我国市场扭曲程度随时间变化的趋势。计量分析结果表明:我国工业行业的市场扭曲程度在不同的时间段内差异很大,但总体上呈现出下降的趋势;转轨阶段国有企业的体制变化和国家的产业政策是影响我国市场扭曲的重要因素;由于我国传统意义上的垄断行业形成的特殊性,垄断行业的市场扭曲程度在这三个阶段里并没有发生明显的变化。因此,应通过深化经济体制改革,特别是对垄断行业的企业体制和价格体制改革,以及完善现行的产业政策,建立充分竞争的市场机制,来降低我国工业行业市场扭曲的程度。     

Accelerated Product Introductions and Emerging Managerial Accounting Perspectives: Implications for Marketing Managers in the Technology Sector

Rapid changes in manufacturing and design technologies coupled with increased competition domestically and internationally have led to shorter product life cycles and compressed lead times for product introductions in the technology sector. Traditional cost accounting systems, which assume labor to be the major cost component in the production process, have resulted in distortions in cost information. Samuel Rabino and Arnold Wright describe emerging cost accounting approaches that more adequately address the changing competitive and technological environments and facilitate an improved evaluation of product launch programs.     

竞争政策强化及产业政策转型影响市场效率的机理研究——兼论有效市场与有为政府

中国特色社会主义市场经济建设需要有效市场和有为政府更好结合,其中的一个重要途径是强化竞争政策基础地位,推进产业政策从选择性向普惠化、功能性转型。竞争政策强化与产业政策转型具有内在关联性,二者相互配合,共同促进有效市场形成。本文构建了基于竞争成功函数和共容利益假设的政企互动模型,研究发现:竞争政策和功能性产业政策有利于提升市场竞争效率,而选择性产业政策会降低市场竞争效率;功能性产业政策在一定程度上能起到弥补市场失灵的作用,体现了有为政府的积极作用。进一步考虑非对称市场竞争时发现,竞争政策可以同时兼顾提升市场竞争效率和分配效率两项目标,而选择性产业政策在两项目标上相互掣肘、由此强化竞争政策的优势凸显。本文理论模型的结论表明,有为政府应强化竞争政策基础地位,为产业政策转型创造良好的市场环境,加快选择性产业政策向功能性产业政策转型,放宽市场准入,持续推行公平竞争审查制度,维护和促进有效市场。良好的经济运行秩序需要有效市场减轻政府管控压力、有为政府简政放权营造良好市场环境,实现有效市场和有为政府更好结合。