Adam Smith and the division of labour: is there a difference between organisation and market?

The paper claims that, in The Wealth of Nations, the divisionof labour refers simultaneously to two different things: a socialdivision of labour and an organisational division of labour.The central point is that the organisation of work (the organisationaldivision of labour) in the firm is the logical counterpart ofthe social division of labour, and that these reflect two inseparableaspects of the process of the division of labour. Smith is thusconcerned with organisations as well as with markets, each functioningaccording to the same principle. Hence, Smith does not believethat the organisational and the social divisions of labour arefundamentally different, although he does recognise some variationbetween them and describes different states of the divisionof labour within the firm, liberal and capitalist.     

Using Micro Data to Test the Divergence between Prices and Labour Values

An extremely robust finding in Marxian empirical economics is the 'Shaikh result' that estimates of labour values are closely correlated with prices. This result is established using input-output data together with a standard procedure in which variations in money wages are assumed to reflect labour quality. Two problems with this standard procedure can be identified. First, there is no translation between money units of wages and labour value units of output produced by different types of heterogeneous labour. Second, the standard procedure assumes perfectly competitive labour markets. In this paper, a new micro procedure for estimating labour values is developed in which both of these problems are addressed. To translate between money wage rates and the labour value of outputs a practical starting point for empirical analysis is suggested using some of the readily available tools of neoclassical economics. The assumption of perfect competition is accordingly relaxed by estimating a microeconometric wage equation using data from the UK Family Expenditure Survey. Conjoining this micro data with input-output data, estimates of labour values are used to test the Shaikh result, which is found not to hold in this particular exercise; with labour values diverging substantially from money prices.     

Productive and Unproductive Capital: A mapping of the New Zealand system of national accounts to classical economic categories, 1972‐95

New Zealand has gained considerable international attention for the neo-liberal economic reform programme it enacted from the mid-1980s; this programme has served as a model for similar reform elsewhere. Within the neoclassical framework of the reformers, the programme has produced many improvements to the economy. Such fundamental indicators as lower inflation, lower budget deficits and higher economic growth are cited as evidence of the improved economic conditions. Yet unemployment remains high, real interest rates are among the highest in the world, nominal interest rates and business confidence fluctuate considerably, and the balance of payments is deteriorating. Using a classical framework, this paper examines the neo-liberal reform of the New Zealand economy to see if there are alternative explanations for the persistence of these problems. The methodology developed by Shaikh & Tonak (1994) is used to map official national accounts data to classical economic categories for the 1972 to 1995 period. This approach is compared with earlier attempts at estimating classical economic categories for New Zealand. This classical view of the economic reforms is compared with the conventional view. The paper's main results are that there was a large increase in unproductive economic activity associated with the economic reforms in New Zealand; that the improvement in economic fundamentals emphasised by the reformers reflects this growth of unproductive activity; and that the persistence of other economic indicators is related to the ongoing weakness of productive activity.     

劳工标准与我国国际竞争力

劳工标准已经成为我国不可回避的问题，我们迫切需要弄清楚劳工标准与中国国家竞争力的关系。本文首先对劳工标准的内涵进行了探讨，界定劳工标准为国际劳工组织中核心劳工标准和劳动力价格或成本；在对国家竞争力的内涵进行探讨后，界定国家竞争力为竞争结果和影响因素两方面；然后对我国劳工标准与国家竞争力的关系进行了实证研究，并在此基础上提出了提高我国国际竞争力的对策。     

How does anti-corruption campaign affect the labour income share in China?

Based on the difference-in-difference (DID) methodology, this paper empirically investigates the impact of the current anti-corruption campaign on the share of labour income in China. Using a firm-level data on Chinese corporations listed on Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2009 to 2015, we find that the campaign contributes to the rise in the labour income share, while there is considerable heterogeneity. The magnitude of the effect depends on firm’s ownership and market power. This paper advances the existing studies examining the nexus between corruption and income distribution from a novel perspective.     

Formal and Informal Labour Markets: Challenges and Policy in the Central and Eastern European New EU Members and Candidate Countries

The paper aims at comparing the formal and informal labour marketsin the Central and Eastern European new EU Member States andcandidate countries of the European Union. First, the currentsituation of the labour market is described, focusing on therecent developments since the breaking up of the East. Thenthe policy design of these labour markets is depicted and itseffects on formal and informal labour markets. The most importantchallenges for employment policy as well as the effects of enlargementon the labour markets are analysed. The paper ends with a shortsummary. (JEL J21, J23, H26, H11, O17, O57)     

The minimum wage and the Lithuanian labour market

This paper presents a comprehensive and non‐standard labour market analysis based on univariate and multivariate models for wages. The novelty of this paper lies in the use of non‐normalized cointegrating vectors for labour market analysis. Wages are the basis of labour market models, as well as the key factor for employees and employers; therefore, the central analytical axis is a classical wage bargaining process, where one side requires and the other side proposes a certain level of wages. Analysis is divided into two parts: foremost, a careful analysis of Lithuanian wages is conducted and a univariate model for the investigation of interactions between the minimum wage and the rest of the wages is proposed; only after the minimum wage model is drafted can the multivarate model for the whole economy be built up. Briefly, the methodology used in this article can be annotated as a synthesis of sequential theoretical and empirical considerations that combine the results of theoretical macroeconomics with data‐generating patterns and stylized facts. The model is considered as the final one only if macro‐theory preconditions, statistical prerequisites, and stylized real‐world requirements are met and fulfilled. In addition, this article gives an example and a quantitatively, as well as qualitatively, motivated suggestion as to how to incorporate minimum wages into econometric models and puts forward an explanation for why it is necessary to include minimum wage dynamics into labour market analysis. The article is nothing but an empirical case study that demonstrates how many minor details have to be taken into account until a realistic labour market model is built up. Although the paper deals with the labour market, the suitable application of time series methods is the main subject of the analysis.     

基于劳动力市场分割的劳动力流动模型的构建

国内外学者对于劳动力流动进行了大量深入的研究,成果颇丰.然而,由于历史的原因,我国在劳动力流动方面呈现出与其他国家不同的特性,目前,我国的劳动力市场尚未发展成熟,劳动力流动存在很严重的不合理现象.因此,结合我国的现实情况对其进行研究意义更加重大.本文试图结合以往学者的研究成果,构建基于劳动力市场分割的劳动力流动模型,对其进行深入的探讨,为实现劳动力的合理流动提供帮助.     

Lessons for Europe from the U.S. Growth Resurgence

This paper analyses the sources of U.S. labour productivitygrowth in the late 1990s and presents projections for both outputand labour productivity growth. We show that investment in informationtechnology (IT) played a substantial role in the U.S. productivityrevival and that similar trends are evident in data for otherleading OECD countries. We then outline a methodology for projectingtrend output and productivity growth for the broadly definedU.S. economy. Our base-case projection puts trend productivitygrowth at 1.78 percent per year over the next decade with arange of 1.14 to 2.38 percent, reflecting fundamental uncertaintiesabout the rate of technical progress in IT-production and investmentin IT-equipment and software. Our central projection is belowthe average growth rate of 2.07 percent during 1995 -2000. Similarprojections for Europe must await more complete information.(JEL J2)     

New forms of labour contract and labour flexibility in Russia

This paper assesses the claims that employment in the new Russian private sector relies heavily on informal and unregistered labour agreements and that the violation of existing labour law by new private employers is driven by their need for more flexible working arrangements.
The paper shows that these claims are unsupported on every count. The new private sector does not rely heavily on informal or illegal forms of employment and there is no evidence that it uses labour more flexibly, in any of the usual senses of the term, than the traditional sectors of the economy. The conclusion is that there is no economic justification for the systematic violation of the existing labour legislation. It is suggested, therefore, that enforcement of the existing law is a precondition for its effective reform in those areas in which it might be a barrier to restructuring.     

Measurement of labour quality growth caused by unobservable characteristics

The standard economy-wide indices of labour quality (or human capital) largely ignore the role of unobservable worker characteristics. In this article, we develop a methodology for identifying the contributions of both observable and unobservable worker characteristics in the presence of the incidental parameter problem. Based on data for Switzerland over the period 1991 to 2006, we find that a large part of growth in labour quality is caused by shifts in the distribution of unobservable worker characteristics. The overall index differs little from the standard indices, but contributions to growth attributed to education and age are corrected downwards.     

Remittances and labour allocation decisions at communities of origin: the case of rural Mexico

From a theoretical perspective, the effect that remittances have on the labour decisions of those that receive them is ambiguous; the empirical evidence reported in the literature is mixed and shows, unsurprisingly, that the net effect of remittances on labour supply is context-dependent. We contribute to this literature by using a detailed data set for rural Mexico that allows us to understand how remittances reshape rural livelihoods by modifying labour allocation decisions. Following previous evidence, we analyse female and male responses separately. Our results show that the income effect of remittances dominates male labour allocation decisions: the probability of participating in the labour market and the total number of hours worked decrease with remittances. We find no effect for female labour allocation decisions. The effects are not uniform across the different productive activities and remittances seem to be contributing to a trend in which Mexican rural inhabitants increasingly move away from agriculture- or nature-based activities. This reinforces the direct effect that emigration has in terms of a reduction in total supply of local labour.     

A materialist development of some recent contributions to the labour theory of value

The paper offers a novel interpretation and affirmation of theopening arguments of Capital, answering the fundamental butneglected question of why labour is the substance of value.Marx's arguments require that two philosophical threads, oftenseparated in the literature on value, be woven together. Theargument that value is the intrinsic ‘content’ makingcommodities exchangeable employs the thread of realism. Theargument that abstract labour is the emergent ‘socialsubstance’ of value employs the thread of dialectics.This interpretation develops the materialist and dialecticalphilosophy of E.V. Ilyenkov and deepens the approach to valuetheory initiated by Ben Fine.     

Labour Tax Reform, the Good Jobs and the Bad Jobs

We analyse recent proposals to shift the tax burden away from low‐paid labour, assuming a dual labour market where the “good” high‐paying jobs are rationed. A shift in the tax burden from low‐paid to high‐paid workers has an ambiguous effect on the level of aggregate employment while the allocation of aggregate employment is further distorted. Even if the tax reform raises total employment, economic efficiency may be reduced because labour is reallocated from high‐productive to low‐productive jobs. We also find that opportunities for on‐the‐job search have important implications for the policy effects.     

Merger Activity and Employment: Evidence from the UK Mutual Sector

This paper approaches the performance consequences of mergers from a new direction; namely by analysing their impact on the acquiring firm's demand for labour. It employs a dynamic labour demand model, with an unbalanced panel of UK financial mutuals over the period 1981–1993. The data relate strictly to core financial intermediation activity and are thus particularly appropriate for the paper's purposes. The results are strongly supportive of an efficiency-enhancing interpretation of merger activity. A significant positive initial impact on the acquirer's demand for labour is followed by three years of significant negative effects, a result consistent with the acquisition and subsequent digestion of less efficient targets.     

The Rise of Finance and the Decline of Organised Labour in the Advanced Capitalist Countries

The goal of this article is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of finance and corporate governance reforms on organised labour since 1980. The argument is made that contemporary institutional and ‘Varieties of Capitalism’ as well as ‘Varieties of Unionism’ perspectives on labour market reform have overstated the power of states, institutions and organised interests in deflecting global economic pressures. Drawing on a range of recent Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) statistics and qualitative studies, it is claimed that current developments in finance and corporate governance mark a fundamental break with post-war developments. Capital has reasserted its power over organised labour and labour markets not only in the US and UK, but throughout Western Europe as well. In assessing how far this reversal has gone, the article focuses on three key political economic changes: i) the rise in finance and adoption of corporate ‘shareholder’ systems; ii) the expansion of mergers and acquisitions and their negative effects on unionisation and manufacturing jobs; and iii) the effects of financial pressures and corporate reform on collective bargaining and wages. This is the first study to report on comparative changes and qualitative reforms to both finance and labour in 13 OECD countries between 1980 and 2005.     

EU Enlargement, Migration and the New Constitution

The paper deals with the effects of migration resulting fromEU Eastern enlargement on the welfare states of Western Europe.Although migration is good in principle, as it yields gainsfrom trade and specialization for all countries involved, itdoes so only if it meets with flexible labour markets and ifit is not artificially induced by gifts of the welfare state.This is not the present state of affairs in Western Europe.In addition to measures that make labour markets more flexible,the introduction of delayed integration of working migrantsand the home country principle for nonworking migrants is arational reaction of the state. The proposed new EU constitution,which contains far-reaching rules for a European social union,should be amended accordingly. (JEL E2, F2, H0, J3, J6)     

我国县域农户家庭劳动力利用的实证分析——以山东省梁山县为例

本文对我国县域农户家庭劳动力利用的情况进行了分析,并对劳动力利用的影响因素进行了模型估计。研究结果表明:当前我国农村还存在20%～30%的富余劳动力需要转移;农户在进行家庭内部分工时基于家庭效益最大化考虑;农户家庭收入来源和镇域经济发展对县域农户家庭劳动力利用有显著影响,不同的家庭劳动力特征对农户家庭就业决策的影响存在一定差异,政策性补贴对农户家庭就业决策的影响不大。在此基础上,本文提出若干政策建议。     

建筑行业包工制：农村劳动力使斥与城市空间生产的制度逻辑

本文试图通过对中国建筑行业普遍存在的包工制——其固有特征、运行逻辑、兴盛原因——的分析,运用马克思主义语境下的劳动力的使用与再生产这一视角重述空间政治经济学在中国的地方性实践,探索城市空间生产的制度逻辑。作者认为,包工制的再次兴盛是农民工“拆分型的劳动力使用模式”在空间生产领域中的具体体现,通过包工制度,原本在户籍制度限制之下割裂的农村劳动力的使用与再生产被纳入一个更受限制的空间,它将再生产策略与中国空间和地理的不平等相结合,既满足了城市的发展需要,又满足了资本的弹性积累需要。然而,由此而来的危机所导致的社会冲突随着经济的高速发展愈演愈烈,这些危机终究难以通过将非正式用工普遍化的包工制度得到彻底解决,在城市空间发展和资本积累过程中保障社会和谐的根本力量在于相关制度法规的建立健全和贯彻执行以及城市对于农民工劳动力再生产的承担。     

Estimating technical change in aggregate production functions: a critique

This paper extends the approach of Simon and Shaikh and demonstrates that the estimates of aggregate production functions can provide no independent evidence of the underlying technology of the economy. It is further shown that estimates of labour and capital augmenting technical progress will merely be equal, by definition, to the growth rates of real wages and of the real rental price of capital respectively. This is illustrated by reference to recent studies that estimate technical progress for the Australian manufacturing industries.