The impact of (more) enlargement on the European Employment Strategy

The European Union (EU) aspires to be the most competitive, full employment economy in the world and has set a number of ambitious targets to be met by 2010 in order that it can achieve this goal. At the same time, it is pursuing an enlargement policy that will witness the accession of an increasing number of less developed nations. This article explores some of the tensions that exist between these two goals as these are manifest in labour market indicators and finds the likelihood of meeting the deadline set for success remote.     

The Impact of Foreign Technology and Embodied R&D on Productivity in Internationally Oriented and High-Technology Industries in Egypt, 2006–2009

This paper investigates the domestic productivity and spillover effects of foreign technology and embodied R&D on Egyptian manufacturing industries, 2006 to 2009. It also analyses the heterogeneous sectoral effects of technology transfer by focusing specifically on the productivity effects on highly internationalized and technology-intensive industries. These are expected to have greater absorptive capacity with respect to foreign technology and therefore larger productivity effects because of their greater exposure to foreign competition and greater technological capacity respectively. This study is the first to analyse the efficiency effects of foreign technology by classifying industries in this manner. It finds that foreign technology and embodied R&D have positive and significant industry-specific effects on domestic productivity and TFP in technology-intensive industries but that these are weaker in internationally oriented industries. The study suggests that only technological-intensive industries in Egypt have sufficient absorptive capacity to assimilate foreign technology effectively. The paper’s findings highlight the key role of foreign technology in domestic productivity growth, subject to the absorptive capacity of the domestic labour force, and the need for improved policies to promote the domestic benefits of technology transfer through the accumulation of local technological competences.

     

The coffee-machine system: how international selection really works

The literature on expatriate selection tends to present lists of criteria, with the implicit assumption that the process is formal and rational. The limited empirical work there is in this area suggests that these criteria have little impact on selection in practice. This paper argues that a deeper understanding of selection systems is needed and presents research showing the outcomes of different kinds of systems, suggesting that closed, informal systems predominate and outlining the practical and research implications of such systems.     

A practical solution to the problem of ultimate ruin probability

Abstract

It was the Swiss actuary Chr. Moser who, in lectures at Bern University at the turn of the century, gave the name “self-renewing aggregate” to what Vajda (1947) has called the “unstationary community” of lives, namely where deaths at any epoch are immediately replaced by an equivalent number of births. It was Moser too (1926) who coined the expression “steady state” for the stationary community in which the age distribution at any time follows the life table (King, 1887). With such a distinguished actuarial history, excellently summarized by Saxer (1958, Ch. IV), it behoves every actuary to know at least the definitions and modus operandi of today's so-called renewal (point), or recurrent event, processes.     

Dual Cities? Sectoral Shifts and Metropolitan Income Inequality, 1980–90

The sectoral shift from manufacturing to services is one of several potential explanations for increasing income inequality in the United States. This article reframes national-level explanations of rising inequality at the level of urban labour markets and assesses their relative contributions to levels and trends in metropolitan income inequality. We find that sectoral shifts, especially the rates of deindustrialisation and employment growth in personal services, significantly affect changes in Gini indices for the largest constant-boundary MSAs between 1980 and 1990. In addition, rising metropolitan inequality is associated with the trend towards self-employment and such supply-side factors as local education levels, changing family structure and immigration. The study provides mixed support for the mismatch and global cities hypotheses.     

Enlargement and the labour market: perception,theory and fact

Favourable labour market outcomes are essential for economic and social cohesion within the newly enlarged European Union. However, Eurobarometer evidence indicates that many in the 10 incoming countries are not convinced that membership will deliver such a result. Also, there is no unambiguous theoretical framework that suggests otherwise. A more optimistic scenario can be obtained by reference to the experiences of earlier low‐income Community entrants during their first years of membership, although long‐term convergence has remained elusive.     

Think international manager,think male: Why are women not selected for international management assignments?

Studies of women in international management originating primarily from North America consistently highlight the lack of women in such positions. This trend continues despite the need for growing numbers of expatriates. Explanations for this phenomenon have centered on women's personal characteristics, home/family circumstances, organizational support, and host country nationals' attitudes. This study examines the status of women in international management from a United Kingdom (UK) perspective. A key finding arising from the study is the critical influence of selection systems for international assignments where the predominant use of closed, informal selection processes for international assignments was seen to create unintended gender bias in recruitment. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.