How 'modern' is the modern apprenticeship?

Despite the fact that some sectors of industry are facing major skills shortages, the Scottish labour market continues to be characterised by occupational segregation and a large disparity between the wages of women and men. The concentration of individuals in occupations and training based on their gender effectively restricts the pool of potential recruits to industry and is unlikely to make the best use of human capital. Moreover, it obstructs the pursuit of gender equality by reinforcing the gender pay gap and restricting individual career choices. This paper reports on the government's flagship training policy, the Modern Apprenticeship programme, from a gender perspective. It concludes that, ten years on from its introduction, the scheme represents something of a 'missed opportunity' to tackle occupational segregation and its deleterious effects in the wider economy and in society at large. It is recommended that the government and organisations involved in the development and delivery of Modern Apprenticeships adopt a more conscious and cohesive approach to promoting non-traditional choices at the vocational level.     

Quantity restrictions and endogenous quality choice

In a vertical product differentiation model under Cournot competition both foreign and domestic firms respond by lowering their investment in long-run quality for a quantity restriction at, and in the neighborhood of, the free trade import level. Average quality increases only when the low-quality foreign firm faces a substantially restrictive quota/voluntary export restraint. The change in quality depends on whether the foreign firm is of high or low quality and upon the restrictiveness of the quota. The imposition of quantity restrictions has important strategic effects on the long-run choice of quality.     

Pricing-to-Market: Price Discrimination or Product Differentiation?

We employ a vertical differentiation model to examine the potential bias in pricing-to-market results when using export unit values aggregating differentiated products. Our results show that: (i) false evidence of pricing-to-market is always found when using unit values, whether the law of one price holds or not; and (ii) the size of the bias increases with the level of product differentiation. Our simulation results support those conceptual findings. Thus, some of the positive pricing-to-market results in the literature could be an artifact of the product heterogeneity embodied in unit values rather than evidence of imperfect competition.     

Generic Advertising and Product Differentiation

This article considers whether generic advertising lowers the differentiation among competing brands of the same good. Analytical results show that if the benefits from generic advertising from increased demand are outweighed by the costs from lower product differentiation then high–quality producers will not benefit from generic promotion. Hypotheses are tested empirically under a conditional–logit approach using retail–market sales and advertising data for the U.S. prune industry. Results from this study provide evidence that generic advertising has a slight differential effect on the perceived qualities of different brands.     

湖北省土地整治项目投资的时空分异及地域分区研究

研究目的:分析土地整治项目投资的演化阶段及空间格局,探寻投资时空分异内在规律和影响因素,并对土地整治项目投资进行地域分区,可以为土地整治相关政策的制定和投资方向的引导提供科学决策依据。研究方法:聚类分析法、变异系数法和重心模型法。研究结果:湖北省土地整治项目投资演进总体上可以划分为3个阶段,投资县际之间的差距呈逐步缩小趋势但差异仍较为明显;投资空间分布呈现出以江汉平原腹地为中心,向西北方向呈沿汉江流域与丹江口水库的"M"形增长带,向东南方向呈沿长江流域的"C"形增长带的发展格局;投资重心呈现明显的东南方位偏向;以投资规模为主要标准,湖北省可划分为7个投资类型区。研究结论:自然条件、地区功能定位以及国家政策设计是影响土地整治投资的重要因素,未来湖北省土地整治项目投资需做好区域统筹,同时各区域应结合各自整治的重点方向用好土地整治资金,优化土地整治项目投资效益。     

武汉市江夏区土地利用程度的垂直分异

利用DEM和中国资源环境数据库中该区域的土地利用空间数据库进行重叠分析，得到武汉市江夏区不同高程下的土地利用信息，以高差10m为指标划分为若干高程带经统计分析得到各带的土地利用结构数据，以增加分级的形式，利用所建县级小尺度土地利用研究的土地利用程度扩展指数，对土地利用程度的垂直分异规律进行了定量研究，结果表明，在40m之上，该指数随着海拔高度自然对数的增加而下降，而且与海拔高度的相关程度很高，在40m以下，却随着海拔高度的增加而增加，作者认为水分过多是土地利用的最大限制因素，该区的土地利用存在着一个最适宜海拔高度，即40m左右。     

现金余额型职业养老金计划及其对我国的启示

现金余额型养老金计划是美国职业养老金近年衍生出的创新模式之一,作为混合型计划的一种,其兼具确定给付型和确定缴费型养老金制度的特点。本文运用比较法分析了现金余额型养老金计划的运行机理,进而在分析我国目前职业养老金面,临的困境的基础上,指出现金余额型养老金计划对我国职业养老金建设的借鉴意义,具体包括：DC计划不是职业养老金...     

河北省第三产业发展的就业效应研究

从第三产业整体和内部两个维度,对河北省第三产业的产业结构、就业弹性和就业结构偏离度等指标进行了分析,借以发现河北省重点发展行业,为今后河北经济的发展和解决就业问题提供依据。     

兰渝铁路辐射带的经济差异及原因

以人均GDP为主要测度指标,采用GeoDA软件提供的空间分析方法,以兰渝铁路沿线120公里范围内的主要行政单元为研究对象,分析了兰渝铁路辐射带的经济空间分异状况。结果表明:辐射带经济发展水平差异显著,在地理上存在较强的空间依赖性;经济发展的热点区域位于重庆境内,是整个铁路辐射带内的唯一辐射中心,另一个端点城市兰州的辐射能力弱;区内无二级节点城市引导经济发展,因此随着距离的增加,重庆的经济辐射能力呈现出明显的衰减效应。在此基础上,从资源禀赋、政策体制、投资环境、区域软实力等角度分析了影响兰渝铁路辐射带经济差异的主要原因。     

开发区建设与城郊社会空间的分异——基于闵行开发区周边社区的调查

经济技术开发区建设是我国引进外资和发展对外贸易的重要举措,其布局多在城市郊区,并由此带动了郊区农村地域迅速向外来农民工集聚的工业化地域的转变,从而可能使原本相对均质的城郊社会空间趋于复杂。通过对上海闵行经济技术开发区周边社区的实地调查,主要借助人口统计资料和居民空间情感的访谈成果,初步探索了经济技术开发区周边居民社会空间的分异状况和机制。研究表明,经济技术开发区建设将使城郊社会空间出现一定程度的分异,但受限于农民工群体的文化经济状况,其影响的空间范围相对有限。但情感空间的分异比居住空间分异更为深刻,它可能影响到城市化进程与和谐城市建设,应受到足够的重视。