Changes in the Finnish Wage Structure: Will Demand and Supply Do?

This study addresses changes in the wage structure in Finland between 1977 and 1995, and provides a simple explanation based on the demand for and supply of skills. The single index model of Card and Lemieux (1996) is augmented by incorporating changes in the supply of skills. The augmented model adequately accounts for the changes in relative wages between groups of different education and experience, but does not capture the changes in the within-group distribution.
JEL classification : J 31     

综合配套改革各试验区研究热点述评

随着国家综合配套改革试验区的设立及其实践的不断深入，理论界就此开展了宏观和微观两个层面的研究。本文以现有的微观研究即分区研究为基础，分析各试验区理论研究的热点，阐述了分区研究的特点、所取得成果的意义及仍需深化的问题。     

Bureaucratic integration and regional specialization in China

Fiscal decentralization introduced as part of China's economic reform since 1979 has unleashed strong incentives for China's local governments to pursue economic development, but the same incentives have also led to local protectionist policies inhibiting the process of regional specialization. This paper focuses on the constraints or freedom with which local governments can implement their protectionist policies. Using a panel data of 29 China's regions over the time period of 1985–1997, we find that China's political system of bureaucratic integration (specifically, concurrent appointment of local government officials in the central government) imposes constraints on the local governments from practicing protectionism. We also find that the effectiveness of local protectionist policies is limited by market competition, specifically, competition from foreign-invested firms operating in China and foreign imports. Our results on the role of local protectionism remain robust to controls for the regional variations in the size of the economy and the stage of economic development.     

京福高速公路建设与三明区域经济发展

三明属福建内陆山区市,农业与旅游业资源丰富,工业基础好,但由于交通条件的制约,经济发展相对滞后。京福高速公路的开通,打破了三明高速公路的零记录,为三明高速公路网的形成奠定了基础,因此,大大提升了三明的区位优势,促使三明新区域经济布局的形成,为三明老工业基地重振雄风、新工业的兴起、农业与旅游业的发展创造了全新的机遇。     

Regional job-turnover and industrial policy. a note on a potential time pattern of regional industrial policies and their job effects - the case of the german city-state of bremen

Many regions have experienced long-run economic fluctuations generated by the life cycles of their dominant industrial clusters. During the downswings in the 1970s and 1980s, proactive structural policies were typically launched in German regions to combat job losses in their core clusters and to create new jobs in new industries. With respect to the German State of Bremen, this paper provides empirical evidence of: (1) a long-run regional downswing; (2) the potential job effects of proactive regional industrial policy programmes in terms of increasing regional employment, by safeguarding jobs in the regional core industries and creating new jobs in new growth industries; and (3) a time pattern in the job effects, which are related to the different generations of programmes.     

INDUSTRIAL POLICY IN GREAT BRITAIN AND ITS EFFECT ON TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY IN MANUFACTURING PLANTS, 1990–1998

Industrial policy in any economy has a number of varying and occasionally conflicting objectives, but the overarching intention of the various grants, subsidies and support schemes, arguably, must be to improve the economic performance of the plants they assist directly. However, in the absence of counterfactual evidence, whether or not assistance does improve performance is hard to establish. In this paper, we consider the impact of two UK government industrial support schemes (Regional Selective Assistance and the Small Firm Merit Awards for Research and Technology) on UK manufacturing plant level total factor productivity in an attempt to answer the question, ‘did assistance make a difference?’     

"交保证金"的报酬政策在中国存在的原因解析--一种扩展的夏皮罗-斯蒂格利茨模型

本文通过建立一种扩展的夏皮罗—斯蒂格利茨模型，解释了“交保证金”的报酬政策在中国存在的原因。当劳动力处于买方市场时，工人在失业和就业两者之间严格偏好于就业，厂商有可能采取“交保证金”的报酬政策，那么，厂商就可以支付较低的实际工资，获得较好的监督效果，使工人努力工作。厂商以较低的工资雇佣工人，可以使劳动力市场的就业人数有所增加，但由于并不是所有工人都能够通过“交保证金”而实现就业，故这一报酬政策不能使市场出清。     

贸易开放度与中国经济增长关系的地区差异研究

为了探求中国的开放政策是否促进了经济增长，以及开放政策对不同区域的作用是否存在差异，本文在相关文献回顾的基础上，运用中国大陆地区28个省、自治区和直辖市（海南、重庆、西藏除外）1984-2004年的相关数据，采用Panel Data模型对贸易开放度与中国经济增长的关系问题进行了实证研究。研究的结论认为开放的对外经济贸易政策促进了中国的经济增长；井且通过研究发现这一促进作用存在着地区差异，对于中西部地区来说，促进作用更大。     

Wage drift and minimum contractual wage: Theoretical interrelationship and empirical evidence for Italy

A two-stage wage setting process whose outcomes are identified in the wage drift, at the local level, and in the tariff wage, at the central level, is analyzed. The impact of insider and outsider factors in each stage of the bargaining process is investigated both theoretically and empirically for Italy. In the light of its extreme policy relevance, particular attention is devoted to the analysis of the interrelationships between the wage drift and the tariff wage. Panel data estimation carried out on a sample of 105 Italian three-digit industries and 41 contract groups, reveals that: (1) Insider factors (productivity, inventories and the insider workers power) are important determinants of the wage drift while outsider factors (aggregate wage and unemployment) have a prominent role in determining the tariff wage. (2) Wage drift and tariff wage are closely interrelated.     

货币政策地区效应——基于地区总供给曲线的理论与实证分析

本文着重检验了我国区域经济中的基于产出缺口的地区短期总供给曲线的存在性,进而分析地区短期总供给曲线对货币政策地区效应的影响。文章首先对地区短期总供给曲线存在的可能性进行了理论解释,应用卡尔曼滤波方法估算了我国各地区的产出缺口,然后运用ARMA模型说明预期通货膨胀率形成机制,最后以通货膨胀率与其预期之差、外部需求冲击等作为解释变量对产出缺口进行回归,结果发现,我国东部地区的短期总供给曲线较中西部地区的短期总供给曲线更平坦,因而东部地区货币政策效应要强于中西部地区。