低工资误区与劳动力市场的“柠檬均衡”

本文从教育市场的可寻租性假设出发,分析了低工资情形下劳动力市场的多次均衡结果。结论是:当信息不对称和教育信号可寻租性并存时,劳动力市场中的“柠檬均衡”就会出现,进而教育市场的“产品质量”会出现恶性循环,最终造成企业实际经营成本的上升。文章最后给出了模型的若干政策涵义。     

劳动力市场失灵及规制架构略论

信号发送理论认为,教育是劳动力市场的强信号之一,可以直接或间接地提供劳动力质量的信息,从而消除劳动力市场的信息不对称.而在我国不成熟的劳动力市场中,教育信号在解决信息不对称方面的作用是有限的,利用信号发送功能消除信息不对称往往需要耗费很高的成本.因此,信号传递机制有效发挥作用必须以成熟的劳动力市场为前提.     

招聘与应聘的博弈分析

在劳动力市场中,由于存在信息的不对称,招聘者与应聘者之间是一种非合作博弈的关系。劳动力市场中的非对称信息会导致“逆向选择”问题,进而造成不必要的人力资源的闲置和社会福利的损失,所以,从理论上说,虽然博弈的重复进行能够缓解招聘者与应聘者之间的冲突,但要从根本上解决这种冲突,必须根据实际情况从现实中寻找答案。运用博弈论的有关知识对招聘与应聘过程进行分析得出：只有尽力地改善劳动力市场中的信息不对称,扩大信息的供给,才能从根本上规避由于信息不对称所带来的“逆向选择”问题,解决招聘者与应聘者之间的矛盾。     

“文凭主义”现象的新制度经济学分析

文章用新制度经济学的相关理论对我国劳动力市场中的“文凭主义”现象进行了剖析 ,指出了由我国劳动力市场中的信息不对称和制度壁垒等原因所导致的交易成本过高是产生“文凭主义”现象的根源 ,在此基础上提出了遏制我国劳动力市场中“文凭主义”现象的政策含义。     

再就业的劳动力需求信息障碍及排除方法

再就业的劳动力需求信息障碍主要是由于就业市场上的信息不对称而造成的。一方面,社会存在对劳动力的需求,一方面下岗职工因信息封闭或流动、传递渠道不畅而不能准确、及时获得就业相关信息,以致与再就业机会失之交臂。 发展劳动力市场是排除劳动力需求信息障碍的根本途径。劳动力市场是市场经济的重要组成部分,国企下岗职工再就业,迫切需要建立劳动力市场体系以及与此相适应的宏观调控体系,以提供劳动力就业所需的信息。当前我国劳动力市场还处于初期发展阶段,很不成熟。功能不齐全,吞吐能力较弱,与大量下岗职工走向市场的趋势极不适应。因此,应加强劳动力市场的建设,使之成为劳动力合理流动的“蓄水池”和“调节器”,使下岗职工有一座通向再就业的桥梁,从而推动下岗职工由企业消化向社会消化转变。截止1996年底,全国职业介绍机构     

中国劳动力市场就业信息机制的完善

劳动力市场是要素市场的重要组成部分,其发展程度直接影响着经济的发展和社会的稳定。由于信息不对称,导致劳动力市场运行效率低下,社会运行成本加大,为此,需要从政府、劳动力市场、企业、求职者四个方面优化劳动力市场就业信息传播机制。     

保险业中的逆向选择与道德风险

现实中的市场往往是一种信息不对称的市场,买方和卖方在许多重要信息的掌握上是不对称的,因此导致资源配置的无效率,引发一系列的社会问题。文章对保险业信息不对称情况、由此产生的“逆向选择”和“道德风险”的结果以及应该采取的相应对策进行了分析。     

教育信号发送作用的经验验证研究综述

Spence在20世纪70年代创建了劳动力市场信号发送模型,着重分析教育作为信号对劳动力市场信息不对称以及均衡产生的影响,从信号发送角度阐释了教育的信息性作用,引发了对教育功能的争议和讨论。许多学者针对信号发送假设与人力资本理论关于教育和收入之间的争议,展开实证研究,验证教育是否具有信号发送作用以及需要的条件。系统地梳理和评述验证教育信号发送作用的方法和结果,对我国转轨经济有重要的启示和借鉴作用。     

失业调控的微观约束机理

导致失业的主要因素是劳动力市场供求价格、技能结构、边际效率、比较利益及要素流动等的失衡，这些都属于劳动力市场的内部因素、微观和客观的因素；而国内外理论界和实业界绝大多数专家学者都自觉或不自觉地将失业问题视为宏观经济问题，企图通过扩张性的财政货币政策来加以治理，因此陷入“通胀”或“滞胀”僵局。解决失业问题应着眼于微观方面，诸如改善劳动力的供求结构、技能结构、区域布局、价格及竞争机制，扭转劳动力需求弹     

我国结构性失业的现状、原因及对策

我国社会经济的变革引发劳动力需求结构的巨大变动,但由于劳动者家庭、教育体系及劳动力市场等方面的原因,导致劳动力供给结构的调整不能适应劳动力需求结构的变动,形成结构性失业。本文从劳动力供给结构角度,分析我国结构性失业问题的形成原因,以找到缓解的方法。     

Ethnic patterns of returns to education in Bulgaria

It is widely accepted that disparities in education contribute to the poor labour market outcomes experienced by ethnic minority groups and consequently to their poverty. In this article, I analyse differential educational benefits in Bulgaria and compare returns to education for the Roma minority with the majority population and the Turkish minority. I show that both ethnic minority groups have lower education levels and employment rates than the majority population and that they also have lower returns to education. This result could be related to minorities' lower education quality as well as to discrimination in the labour market. Integration policies should thus aim to improve employability and labour market competence of vulnerable groups starting from school.     

我国教育市场垄断性的实证研究

近年来,有关教育消费的争论不断,包括教育产业化、高收费、以及低水平的政府教育支出等等。各种观点似乎都有道理,但缺乏实证的支持。文章构造了一个完全垄断的教育市场模型。实证结果表明,我国教育市场属于完全垄断。导致高收费的主要原因不是低水平的政府教育支出而是市场的完全垄断。     

A microfoundation for increasing returns in human capital accumulation and the under-participation trap

This paper considers educational investment, wages and hours of market work in an imperfectly competitive labour market with heterogeneous workers and home production. It investigates the degree to which there might be both underemployment in the labour market and underinvestment in education. A central insight is that the ex post participation decision of workers endogeneously generates increasing marginal returns to education. Although equilibrium implies underinvestment in education, optimal policy is not to subsidise education. Instead it is to subsidise labour market participation which we argue might be efficiently targeted as state-provided childcare support.     

Franchising the american elementary and secondary educational system

To solve the education “woes” of the U.S., many experts have looked to both command economies (standardized curriculum), and competitive markets (e.g. school choice and school vouchers), for answers. This normative research explores an optimal mix between market economies and command economies in education through the use of the business-format franchising structure. Franchising, an organizational form lying between the extremes of markets and hierarchies, would establish a standardized curriculum composed of those components of education that are deemed essential to the educational growth of our students. At the same time, franchising allows for levels of autonomy for educational institutions that would enable them to effectively target the additional needs and preferences of their local area, which in turn develops competitive markets in which schools compete for student enrollment thereby remedying the moral hazard problem. Finally, two additional characteristics that make this format attractive in tackling the problems in education are its continuous transfer of “know how” and its regular technical assistance. In the context of education, these characteristics translate into necessary links between educational theory and practice as well as national research and training grounds for teachers and administrators.     

Franchising the american elementary and secondary educational system

To solve the education “woes” of the U.S., many experts have looked to both command economies (standardized curriculum), and competitive markets (e.g. school choice and school vouchers), for answers. This normative research explores an optimal mix between market economies and command economies in education through the use of the business-format franchising structure. Franchising, an organizational form lying between the extremes of markets and hierarchies, would establish a standardized curriculum composed of those components of education that are deemed essential to the educational growth of our students. At the same time, franchising allows for levels of autonomy for educational institutions that would enable them to effectively target the additional needs and preferences of their local area, which in turn develops competitive markets in which schools compete for student enrollment thereby remedying the moral hazard problem. Finally, two additional characteristics that make this format attractive in tackling the problems in education are its continuous transfer of “know how” and its regular technical assistance. In the context of education, these characteristics translate into necessary links between educational theory and practice as well as national research and training grounds for teachers and administrators.     

Labour market consequences of a high school diploma

This article compares the labour market outcomes of high school dropouts to high school graduates who did not enrol into higher education, but immediately entered the labour market. Using parental educational background as an instrument on a rich administrative dataset in the Flemish Region of Belgium, we find no returns to a high school diploma on average. However, these results hide considerable heterogeneity by gender and educational track. While females and individuals in vocational education may benefit from a diploma, male graduates and students holding a general education diploma may even be worse off on the labour market than dropouts. We show that sectoral heterogeneity acts as an underlying mechanism in the returns to a high school diploma.     

发行义务教育公债是弥补中国义务教育经费投入不足问题的可行之策

教育经费投入不足一直是困扰中国教育事业发展的重大问题。随着中国义务教育免费政策的出台与实施,教育公平的推进和义务教育质量的提高,义务教育的建设与发展需要更多的资金投入。而中国逐年增长的教育经费很难满足目前义务教育的需要。因此,从义务教育经费的缺口分析入手,提出发行教育公债是解决义务教育经费投入不足的一种有效手段。     

The Impact of Education on Innovative Economy Polish Experiences

Methods and concepts of innovation performance are widely analyzed, discussed, and evaluated. The influence of educational management on the creation of innovative economy is not widely described in literature, however, procedures of innovation performance include the measures of educational elements. The paper discusses the methodology of European Innovation Scoreboard （EIS） and Innovation Union Scoreboard （IUS） in the aspect of education for innovative economy. Educational indicators in EIS/IUS methodology are quantitative and do not include information about the quality of education. Researchers agreed that innovation processes and economical growth require well-educated and skilled workforce and they assume that skilled workers are on output of the educational system. The measurement system of innovations in Europe includes various economical aspects, allows to observe trends and gives opportunity to improvement for countries and is directed on future educational effects. Quantitative indicators allow to observe trends, educational needs, desires of pupils, and their parents. The efficiency of these indicators is presented on the example of Poland. Educational indicators to improve innovation performance should be very synthetic, but cannot lose important information. The article presents author＇s research on graduate career paths and suggests to include elements of this methodology in the measurement system of innovation economy.     

Youth labor market expectations and job matching in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from school-to-work transition surveys

In this paper, we investigate the factors that influence youth labour market expectations and outcomes. We also perform a job matching exercise to understand youth labour market dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our results show that youth education is an influential factor of youth employment expectations and employment, ceteris paribus. Higher educational attainments have a great impact on expecting and securing better jobs, particularly in the technical and professional fields. Youth with low educational attainments, particularly primary education and lower, have a higher tendency to expect to be employed in occupations with low job complexity. Our results indicate a severe job-skill mismatch in all occupational categories, both before and after the youth’s transition into the labour market. Using education as the only selection criterion, we found that less than 10 per cent of employment expectations match with skills required while 55 per cent and 34 per cent are under or over-educated for the jobs expected, respectively. Over and under education is a notable feature in youth labour markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. About 47 per cent of employed youth in the sample are overqualified for their respective jobs while 28 per cent are under qualified.     

Youth idleness in Eastern Europe and Central Asia before and after the 2009 crisis

ABSTRACT

Youth idleness is a significant problem in many countries, including in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) where it has rarely been studied. Labour market and education policies need to be based on a strong knowledge base on the Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) population. This paper uses micro-level data from the early 2000s through 2011 to fill knowledge gaps. NEET rates for different age intervals, gender and educational attainment are investigated for the ECA region and countries within. We find that the NEET rate in ECA was declining prior to the 2009 crisis and increased afterwards, with a more pronounced impact on males. Our findings reveal considerable heterogeneity across countries likely due to varying demographics, labour market conditions and education policies. Policies on idle youths in this region need to be tailored to varying national situations. This paper also suggests pathways for future research.

Abbreviations: NEET: Not in Employment, Education or Training; ECA: Eastern Europe and Central Asia