Understanding the impact of COVID-19 intervention policies on the hospitality labor market

Using new high-frequency data that covers a representative sample of small businesses in the United States, this study investigates the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting state policies on the hospitality industry. First, business closure policies are associated with a 20–30% reduction of non-salaried workers in the food/drink and leisure/entertainment sectors during March-April of 2020. Second, business reopening policies play a statistically significant role in slowly reviving the labor market. Third, considerable differences exist in the impact of policies on the labor market by state. Fourth, the rise of new COVID-19 cases on a daily basis is associated with the continued deterioration of the labor market. Lastly, managerial, practical, and economic implications are described.     

New evidence on the historical growth of government in Europe: The role of labor costs

We document a robust positive correlation between the size of government and the labor share of income in data from European countries covering the period 1869–1975. Following Facchini et al. (2017), we interpret this correlation as evidence that labor costs drive public spending. The long-term increase in the labor share observed over this period explains half of the overall growth of central government. The relationship holds when the labor share is instrumented with movements in technological change at the frontier. When decomposing public spending, transfers, not intensive in labor, are the only component not associated with the labor share.     

Supply‐ versus Demand‐Side Policies in the Presence of Carbon Leakage and the Green Paradox

We consider a climate coalition that seeks to reduce global emissions in the presence of carbon leakage and resource exhaustibility. We show that a credible announcement of future unilateral supply‐side policies delays foreign emissions, and we derive the optimal combination of consumer taxes and producer taxes when we consider leakages from free riders, both within periods and across periods. The tax shares generally differ over time. A decline in the present value of the social cost of carbon over time supports a time path where the consumers’ tax share of the total carbon tax also declines over time. We illustrate our findings with a numerical model.     

Social Security and Old Age Unemployment Risk with Efficient Wage Bargaining

I analyze a life‐cycle economy with old age productivity risk where wages, employment, and severance payments are set through efficient bargaining between risk averse unions and risk neutral firms. Allocations with limited union membership are second‐best inefficient as they generate too little labor supply in young age, too much consumption before retirement, too little employment of older workers (early retirement), and too little insurance against old age unemployment. Providing public transfers to early retirees (disability benefits or early pensions) might help to increase the degree of risk sharing at the cost of lower old age employment. Depending on whether absolute risk aversion is increasing or decreasing in consumption, these policies might or might not produce efficiency gains at equilibrium.     

An econometric analysis of demand for food quantity and quality in urban China

This article offers an analytical framework for studying consumer demand for food quality based on a theory‐consistent demand model, namely, the Exact Affine Stone Index specification. Importantly, it accounts for unobserved consumer and regional heterogeneity, and allows for arbitrary Engel curves. The empirical value of our framework is illustrated in an econometric analysis of demand for food quality in China. Evaluating possible structural changes in consumer food expenditures in China is of paramount importance, given the ever‐increasing global role of China and the implications of the structural food preference changes for the global food system. The major findings emerging from this study indicate that income is an important determinant of demand for food quality and quantity with the relatively more affluent provinces having a higher affinity for food quality.     

“一带一路”沿线国家贸易开放与劳动收入份额

基于1990~2014年的跨国数据,实证研究贸易开放对"一带一路"沿线国家劳动收入份额的影响。分析发现,"一带一路"沿线国家的劳动收入份额均值下降了5%以上。采用固定效应模型和工具变量法的实证分析表明,整体上贸易开放抑制了"一带一路"沿线国家的劳动收入份额。进一步将"一带一路"沿线国家按照经济发展水平、要素禀赋、制度环境分组研究发现,贸易开放对高经济发展水平国家、资本密集型国家、资源密集型国家、制度环境良好国家的劳动收入份额具有显著负影响,但是对于低经济发展水平国家、劳动密集型国家、制度环境不佳国家的劳动收入份额具有显著正效应。而向中国贸易开放能够提高"一带一路"沿线国家的劳动收入份额,特别是对低经济发展水平国家的积极影响较强。上述实证结果具有稳健性。在此基础上提出了相应的政策建议。     

资本主义福利国家的必然性、局限性与面临的挑战——基于经济全球化视阈的历史唯物主义诠释和启示

资本主义福利国家的产生和发展是第二次世界大战后资本主义社会应对生产力发展和生产方式变化的自我调整，具有历史必然性，也具有自身局限性：形式上的“国家回归”没有改变资本主义私有制生产关系，无法消除资本主义社会的根本矛盾和经济危机；社会普遍高福利的实现（部分）依赖于凭借显著竞争优势在世界市场上获取的超额利润，福利模式具有排他性和剥削性，不能为落后国家所复制，也不能成为世界福利模式。因而，资本主义福利国家成为发达国家的特权，且当经济危机爆发或出现经济滞胀时，其会采取削减甚至拆除社会福利的措施以追求资本和财富的积累。随着经济全球化发展，资本积累与社会福利的矛盾日益凸显，资本主义福利国家模式面临实践上的可持续性和价值上的普适性双重挑战。借鉴资本主义福利国家的经验教训，后发国家应努力提升“结构的或根本性的竞争力”，寻求经济与社会的平衡发展；中国还应充分发挥国家制度和国家治理体系的显著优势，积极建设国家主导、福利要素多元、福利机制灵活的中国特色社会主义福利社会。     

外资进入影响行业工资差距的路径与异质性研究——来自中国服务业的经验证据

外商直接投资（FDI）可以通过劳动力需求效应和技术溢出效应改变东道国的劳动力就业结构和行业相对劳动生产率，进而影响行业工资差距，并且这种影响具有不确定性；由于投资动机和进入方式的不同，FDI对行业工资差距的影响具有异质性并表现为地区差异。基于中国服务业的经验分析发现：外资进入通过增加低工资行业的相对就业规模和提升高工资行业的相对劳动生产率扩大了行业工资差距，适应中国低技能劳动力丰裕而高技能劳动力相对稀缺的劳动力市场条件；在以垂直型和合资型FDI为主的地区外资进入具有显著的扩大行业工资差距效应，而在以水平型和独资型FDI为主的地区这一影响并不明显。因此，应努力提高劳动力人力资本水平并充分保障低技能劳动力的权益，积极鼓励和引导水平型FDI进入并适度减少垂直型FDI的引入，持续增强企业的技术吸收能力并不断缩小技术差距，进而在高效利用外资的同时缩小行业工资差距。     

Parking futures: An international review of trends and speculation

The explosion of low-cost, on-demand taxi services and the anticipation of an autonomous vehicle future has made transportation the center of debate and discussion for the first time since the massive expansion of the US highway system in the 1950s. Yet the realm of parking boasts innovations and developments far beyond the high-profile issues of TNCs and AVs. Rather, innovation in parking is happening in many cases quietly on a wide variety of fronts, including technology, public policy, and design. This paper serves an overview of emerging trends in parking, primarily within the US context. We identify and outline five developments and the pertinent technologies helping to catalyze change: unbundling parking costs, reducing parking minimums, pricing and allocating curb space dynamically, designing hybrid parking structures, and preparing for the autonomous era and “mobility as a service.” This paper presents these trends with illustrative examples highlighting current practices, governance challenges, and possible future scenarios.     

Modeling Airbnb demand to New York City while employing spatial panel data at the listing level

Using spatial panel data comprising a cross section of 1,461 continuously active Airbnb listings obtained from AirDNA, as well as time series data from NYC and Company and the OECD covering the time period September 2014 to June 2016, the present study quantifies own price, cross price, and income elasticities of Airbnb demand to New York City within an empirical tourism demand framework. The particular goal of the study is to establish whether the relationship between Airbnb and the traditional accommodation industry is of a substitutional or of a complementary nature. Employing a one-way fixed-effects spatial Durbin model, it can be concluded that demand is price-inelastic for Airbnb accommodation in New York City, which is a luxury good, and that the city's traditional accommodation industry as well as neighboring Airbnb listings are substitutes for the investigated Airbnb listings. The estimation results are robust against several alternative specifications of the regression equation.