The impact of production offshoring on the skill composition of manufacturing firms: evidence from Italy

In this work we explore how the international outsourcing of production impacts the skill composition of employment within Italian manufacturing firms. In particular, our aim is to assess whether the choice to offshore production activities to cheap‐labour countries implies a bias in the employment of skilled workers relative to unskilled ones.

Using a balanced panel of firms covering the period 1995–2003, we set up a counterfactual analysis in which, by using a difference‐in‐differences propensity score matching estimator, we compare the dynamics of skill demand for treated and control firms while addressing the possible problem of selection bias.

Our results identify a ‘potential’ skill bias effect of production offshoring. In particular, we find that treated firms tend to show an upward shift in the skill ratio with respect to the counterfactual sample, but coefficients are not significantly different from zero. When we look at the elements of the skill ratio separately, we find that the skill bias is driven by a fall in the employment of production workers (blue collars), rather than by the increase in the employment of non‐production workers (white collars), thus providing further evidence on the unskilled labour‐saving nature of international outsourcing.     

企业退出出口市场行为与企业的经营表现——基于倾向评分匹配的经验分析

文章运用倾向评分匹配方法分析了企业退出出口市场行为对其经营表现的影响。研究结果表明,经营表现越差的出口企业退出出口市场的概率越大;企业退出出口市场行为对企业经营表现的影响主要体现在影响就业增长和产出增长方面,而对劳动生产率的影响总体不显著。具体表现为,企业退出出口市场会对其就业增长和产出增长产生持续的显著负向作用,这说明我国国内需求尚不足以使企业退出出口市场后继续保持退出前的就业增长率和产出增长率。因此,在提倡出口转内销的同时需注重提高出口企业在国际市场竞争中的存活率。     

山东省农村居民消费结构实证分析

运用扩展线性支出系统模型对山东省农村居民消费结构的特点及变化趋势进行实证分析。结果表明：食品和衣着是居民基本需求的重点,交通通讯和居住可能会成为未来农村居民的消费热点。因此,要实现消费结构升级,需从拓宽增收渠道入手,把握居民消费热点,刺激居民消费。     

The impact of minimum wages on employment of low‐wage workers

This study provides empirical evidence on the impact of a minimum wage increase on employment of workers in the formal sector who have wages below the minimum level in Vietnam. Using the difference‐in‐differences with propensity score matching and the Vietnam Household Living Standard Surveys of 2004 and 2006, the article finds that the minimum wage increase in 2005 reduced the proportion of workers having a formal sector job among low‐wage workers. Most workers who lost formal sector jobs became self‐employed.     

谈同声传译中的"有稿同传"

有稿同传作为同声传译中最常见的工作方式有其独特的表现形式和特点。通过培养译员注意力转移和分散能力、注重翻译技巧和心理素质的训练,可以提高翻译质量。     

Can Poverty be Alleviated in China?

The 2000s witnessed the third poverty alleviation wave in China. Compared with its predecessors, the third wave distinguished itself by new interventions and redefined standards for the National Poor Counties. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the new program using a data set consisting of 1,411 of China's western and central counties from 2000 to 2010. It combines the propensity score matching method with the difference‐in‐differences approach, which helps to avoid selection bias and track the policy impact on variables of interest at each time point. It is found that the non‐western local governments tended to manipulate data on income and output growth to maintain the special transfer payments disbursed exclusively to the National Poor Counties. It is also shown that the program failed to improve the infrastructure and sanitary conditions in general.     

WHAT IS THE EFFECT OF HOUSEWORK ON THE MARKET WAGE,AND CAN IT EXPLAIN THE GENDER WAGE GAP?

Abstract Does housework reduce the market wage, and if so, does it have a similar impact for males and females? In this paper, we survey and evaluate the recent and growing empirical literature on the linkages between housework and the wage rate. The review is motivated by unexplained gender wage gaps across studies, which consider personal and market‐related factors. We focus on this less‐studied aspect of wage determination. We consider the required modelling framework, and provide standardized estimated effects of housework on the hourly wage across studies. We evaluate how this literature has addressed potential estimation problems, in particular, the endogeneity of housework, concavity of the housework–wage function, threshold effects and work effort effects. We conclude that the evidence across ordinary least squares, instrumental variable, fixed effects and two‐stage least squares results casts serious doubt on the idea that the negative female housework–wage relationship is only driven by endogeneity bias or individual‐specific characteristics. Yet, much more needs to be done to address modelling and data requirements, and we point out likely and promising future research directions.     

Greening propensity and performance implications for logistics service providers

Stakeholders in the logistics industry have growing concern about the damage caused by logistics operations to the environment. Logistics service providers (LSPs) have taken steps to pursue environmental objectives by involving customers in their operations. This study defines greening propensity (GP) as “involvement of customers to perform logistics activities to achieve environmental performance”. We analyze survey data collected from the logistics industry in Hong Kong to address the following questions: What are the categories of greening capability in LSPs? What are the performance outcomes of LSPs’ greening capability? Theoretical contributions and implications of the study results are discussed.