Agricultural productivity differences and credit market imperfections

This paper presents a simple model to examine the implication of credit market imperfections when considering the huge variation of agricultural labor productivity across countries. The development of credit markets enables more agents to acquire skills to work in non-agricultural sectors. The expansion of the sectors decreases the labor supply to agriculture as well as increases the supply of modern intermediate inputs to agriculture. Agricultural producers accordingly substitute the relatively cheap intermediate inputs for labor to produce a given level of an agricultural good, and, thereby, the output per worker in agriculture is improved. Poor countries with less developed credit markets are, therefore, far less productive in agriculture than rich countries with well-developed credit markets.     

Trends and characteristics of injuries in the State of Qatar: hospital-based study

Injuries account for a large burden of mortality and morbidity in the State of Qatar. No comprehensive study has been conducted on all types of injuries in the State of Qatar. The objective of this study was to determine the trend in the number, incidence and pattern of injuries in the State of Qatar. This hospital-based study is a retrospective analysis of 53,366 patients treated at the accident and emergency and trauma centres for injuries during the period from 2006 to 2010. Injuries were determined according to the ICD 10 criteria. The details of the entire trauma patients who were involved in occupational/domestic injuries were extracted from the database of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Hamad Medical Corporation. Our results demonstrated that the rates of injury remained relatively stable in the State of Qatar over the five–year period. Those most at risk of injury were non-Qatari males who were below 30 years. Road traffic accidents (RTA) (36.7%) followed by falls causing back injuries (11.0%) were the most common types of injuries during the period. Most of the injuries occurred at the head for both males (17.7%) and females (13.5%); this was consistently the case across all of the age groups. The greatest proportion of RTA (21.2%), industrial machinery injuries (16.4%), construction injuries (15.5%), recreational sporting injuries (20.5%) and beach/sea/ocean injuries (15.0%) resulted in head injuries. Intervention efforts need to be aimed at reducing occupational injuries, RTA injuries and work–related hazards in the State of Qatar.     

Occupational accidents in the Finnish local government sector: Utilisation of national statistics

Occupational accidents in the Finnish local government sector in 2004 are analysed by gender, age and occupation class in order to identify particular risk groups. The accident data are compared with data concerning the number of employees, using frequency distributions and accident incidence rates. The possibilities of providing occupation class-specific accident incidence rates are also discussed. According to the results, commuting accidents are more common and severe in the local government sector than in general in Finland. In the local public sector occupational accidents more often involved women than men. Compared to other age groups and occupational classes, occupational accidents are more common in the age band of 45–54 and in the occupational class of medical and nursing work. However, compared to the employees' data, men and younger employees had an increased workplace accident risk, while women and older employees had an increased risk of commuting accidents. The highest accident incidence rate was in farming and animal husbandry work. Currently, the calculation of occupation class-specific accident incidence rates is difficult. Improving the consistency of the occupation classifications used in the various data sources would facilitate more reliable calculation of rates.     

企业年金投资的风险及其规避

投资运营是企业年金保值增值的关键环节,而有投资必有风险。本文从规避企业年金投资风险的角度,将企业年金投资风险分为三个层次：宏观经济变动引起的风险;企业年金在市场运营中产生的风险;企业年金投资运作主体引起的风险。引起投资风险的因素不同,则控制风险的措施不同。在风险识别的基础上,以创新理论为基础,从制度创新与技术创新两方面探讨了规避年金投资风险,获取较高、稳定收益的措施。     

新型劳资关系对中小企业建立年金计划的影响分析

企业年金作为一项企业福利制度已经成为企业优化管理的重要手段,但我国中小企业年金计划却止步不前。本文在深入分析中小企业建立年金计划面临困难和问题的基础上,通过思考新型劳资关系对中小企业产生的影响,指出新型劳资关系可以解决中小企业建立年金面临的难题,并提出了具体的对策和建议,为进一步推动中小企业年金计划的发展提供借鉴。     

完善企业年金监管的几点思考

由美国次贷危机引发的全球金融风波至今已近四年,其造成的损失和影响自20世纪30年代以来前所未有.美国、英国和欧盟为防止危机对经济的进一步拖累,纷纷提出自己的金融监管改革计划,以应对危机.文章首先介绍了美国和欧盟金融监管改革的发展历程,然后总结了美欧金融监管改革对我国加强金融监管的启示,最后结合国际金融监管改革的新动向,并从市场化、风险控制和构建合作机制等三方面提出了改善我国企业年金监管的政策建议.     

Integration of Individualized Management Systems （MSs） as an Aggregating Factor of Sustainable Value for Organizations An Overview Through a Review of the Literature

Nowadays, there exist various standards for individual management systems （MSs）, at least, one for each stakeholder. New ones will be published. An integrated management system （IMS） aims to integrate some or all components of the business into one coherent and efficient MS. Maximizing integration is more and more a strategic priority in that it constitutes an opportunity to eliminate and/or reduce potential factors of destruction of value for the organizations and also to be more competitive and consequently promote its sustainable success. A preliminary investigation was conducted on a Portuguese industrial company which, over the years, has been adopting gradually, in whole or in part, individualized management system standards （MSSs）. A research, through a questionnaire, was performed with the objective to develop, in a real business environment, an adequate and efficient IMS-QES （quality, environment, and safety） model and to potentiate for the future a generic IMS model to integrate other MSSs. The strategy and research methods have taken into consideration the case study. It was obtained a set of relevant conclusions resulting from the statistical analyses of the responses to the survey. Globally, the investigation results, by themselves, justified and prioritized the conception of a model of development of the IMS-QES and consequent definition and validation of a structure of an IMS-QES model, to be implemented at the small- and medium-sized enterprise （SME） where the investigation was conducted.     

Ethical Climates and Workplace Safety Behaviors: An Empirical Investigation

In this article, the important but neglected link between workplace safety-enhancing behavior and ethics is explored. Using data from 237 employees from five manufacturing plants in the Midwest, we investigated how specific local ethical climate types are linked to incidences of injuries and two types of safety-enhancing behaviors: safety compliance and safety participation. It was hypothesized that egoist climates are positively related to injuries and negatively related to safety-enhancing behaviors. In contrast, it is proposed that both benevolent and principled climates have negative relationships with injuries and positive relationships with safety-enhancing behaviors. Results provided support only for our principled climate types while benevolence has the desired negative relationship with injuries. Egoism and benevolence are not related to safety-enhancing behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed. K. Praveen Parboteeah (Ph.D. Washington State University) is an Associate Professor of International Management in the Department of Management, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. Parboteeah's research interests include international management, ethics, religion and technology and innovation management. He has published articles in numerous acadamic journals including Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Decision Sciences, Small Group Research, Journal of World Business, Management International Review, R&D Management and Journal of Engineering and Technology Management. Edward Andrew Kapp is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Safety & Health at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madision. Prior to his position at UW-Whitewater he worked in government, consulting, and private industry. Currently he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in occupational safety, environmental health & safety management, and environmental and safety law. Dr. Kapp's research is in the area of environmental health & safety management, focusing on the influence of climate and leadership on safety performance.     

The effect of economic anxiety and occupational burnout levels of tour guides on their occupational commitment

This study aims to reveal the effects of economic anxiety and burnout levels of active tour guides in Turkey on their occupational commitment. A questionnaire survey was conducted for this purpose on 370 active tour guides. Data were analysed using the path analysis and structural equation modelling. A negative relationship was found between the occupational commitment and burnout levels of tour guides and a strong positive relationship was found between the burnout and economic anxiety levels; it was also observed that the economic anxiety level only had a slight positive impact on continuance commitment.     

COVID-19 and Ethnic Inequalities in England and Wales*

The economic and public health crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed existing inequalities between ethnic groups in England and Wales, as well as creating new ones. We draw on current mortality and case data, alongside pre-crisis labour force data, to investigate the relative vulnerability of different ethnic groups to adverse health and economic impacts. After accounting for differences in population structure and regional concentration, we show that most minority groups suffered excess mortality compared with the white British majority group. Differences in underlying health conditions such as diabetes may play a role; so too may occupational exposure to the virus, given the very different labour market profiles of ethnic groups. Distinctive patterns of occupational concentration also highlight the vulnerability of some groups to the economic consequences of social distancing measures, with Bangladeshi and Pakistani men particularly likely to be employed in occupations directly affected by the UK's ‘lockdown’. We show that differences in household structures and inequalities in access to savings mean that a number of minority groups are also less able to weather short-term shocks to their income. Documenting these immediate consequences of the crisis reveals the potential for inequalities to become entrenched in the longer term.