Productivity and Welfare

Technical change is generally characterized by a rate and biases, both evaluated for given producer prices. This paper examines the potential discrepancy between this rate and the corresponding rate of consumer welfare change as measured by Allais distributable surplus. We postulate a general equilibrium context with various market failures (taxes, quotas, imperfect competition, and “poorly priced” commodities), and use comparative statics to express the rate of welfare change in terms of the rate and biases of the technical change. An elementary simulation model of a taxed economy suggests that the rate of welfare change may differ from the rate of technical change by as much as 50% under plausible circumstances.     

How Fast Do Banks Adjust? A Dynamic Model of Labor-Use with an Application to Swedish Banks

This paper deals with a dynamic adjustment process in which adjustment of a key variable input (labor) towards its desired level is modeled in a panel data context. The partial adjustment type model is extended to make the adjustment parameter both firm- and time-specific by specifying it as a function of firm- and time-specific variables. Desired level of labor use is represented by a labor requirement function, which is a function of outputs and other firm-specific variables. The catch-up factor is defined as the ratio of actual to desired level of employment. Productivity growth is then defined in terms of a shift in the desired level of labor use and the change in the catch-up factor. Swedish banking data is used as an application of the above model.     

An alternative employee rights paradigm: Labor process theory

A dialectical relationship exists between the capitalist desire for accumulation of wealth and profits, and the rights of employees. Labor process theory exposes facets of the fundamental incongruity between the interests of employers and workers in a capitalist political economy. An analysis of employee rights through the labor process framework facilitates the potential for human emancipation by illuminating the ideological, political, and economic sources of domination and repression that are embedded in the capitalist system. In this article, three core elements of labor process theory—the social relations of production, the managerial control imperative, and the restructuring of work—are used to highlight ways in which organizations maintain their hegemonic position. This exposé offers the basis for an alternative paradigmatic view of the employment relationship and informs our thinking of how employee rights are impacted, and often tempered, in work organizations. Portions of this article were presented by both authors at the 12th Annual International Labour Process Conference March, 1994 in Birmingham, England.     

Applying efficiency measurement techniques to the measurement of productivity change

Deterministic frontier analysis (DFA), stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), and data envelopment analysis (DEA) are alternative analytical techniques designed to measure the efficiency of producers. All three techniques were originally developed within a cross-sectional context, in which the objective is to compare the efficiencies of producers. More recently all three techniques have been extended for use in a panel data context. In the latter context it is possible to measure productivity change, and to decompose measured productivity change into its sources, one of which is efficiency change. However when efficiency measurement techniques, particularly SFA, have been applied to panel data, it has infrequently been made clear what the objective of the analysis is: the measurement of efficiency, which may vary through time as well as across producers, or the measurement and decomposition of productivity change. In this paper I explore the use of each technique in a panel data context. I find DFA and DEA to have achieved a more satisfactory reorientation toward productivity measurement than SFA has.     

产业集群的演进:一个基于专业化分工视角的解释

产业集群的形成是专业化分工产业的报酬递增的一种空间表现形式,是一个劳动分工深化、交易效率提高的过程.如果从分工角度考察,产业集群是形成专业化分工的产物;同时,分工和专业化的发展与产业集群之间表现出高度的一致性.     

劳动价值论中的几个关系式释疑

深化对社会主义社会劳动和劳动价值理论的研究和认识不可不探讨劳动价值论中的几个关系式 ,需要对以下几个等式或不等式释疑 :劳动=价值释疑 ;劳动 /价值≠财富释疑 ;价值量=1/劳动生产力释疑 ;价格=价值、价格≠价值释疑。     

科学定位从容变性适度扩容--我对劳动价值的新认识

深化对劳动和劳动价值论的研究和认识,应包括三方面的内容:科学定位;从容变性;适度扩容.首先从劳动价值论的诞生和演变过程中确立马克思劳动价值论的科学地位;分析马克思劳动价值论由革命的理论转变为不仅是革命理论,也是建设理论;论述马克思劳动价值论要与时俱进地完善、丰富和发展.     

新疆劳动参与率偏低的原因分析

本文通过对新疆和全国劳动参与率的比较分析,得出新疆地区的劳动参与率明显低于全国水平,并对此产生的原因作了简要分析。除了各种宏观经济因素外,与新疆地区推行特殊的少数民族生育政策而带来的高幼儿扶养比和该地区传统的小富则安缺乏竞争意识的思想观念也有很大关系。     

简析《劳动合同法(草案)》关于劳动合同订立新规则对企业的影响

《劳动合同法(草案)》是我国第一部对劳动合同制度进行规范的法律草案,它在对《劳动法》中有关劳动合同规范进行调整、补充及完善的基础上,确立了若干新规则,这些新规则将不可避免对企业带来影响与冲击.该文以《劳动合同法(草案)》第二章关于劳动合同订立的规定为基点,从劳动合同订立的要求、试用期条款使用、竞业限制规定、违约金条款、劳务派遣用工等方面来简要分析《劳动合同法(草案)》新规则对企业之影响.     

农村剩余劳动力转移的理论、现状与政策建议

文章在论述农村剩余劳动力转移相关理论的基础上,阐述了我国农村剩余劳动力转移的现状,并提出相关的政策建议,倡导城镇化及发展劳动密集的第三产业,为农村剩余劳动力转移提供就业岗位。