劳动力市场比较优势与跨区域资本配置

文章使用手工收集和整理的2001-2013年我国上市公司设置分支机构的数据，考察了地区劳动力市场比较优势与上市公司跨区域资本配置行为之间的关系，以及劳动保护在上述关系中的作用。研究结果表明：(1)获取劳动力市场比较优势是上市公司跨区域资本配置的重要驱动因素之一，表现为上市公司更可能到劳动力资源丰富和劳动成本低的地区设置分支机构；(2)与上市公司注册地相比，一个地区的劳动力市场比较优势越明显，上市公司到该地区设置分支机构的可能性越大；(3)加强劳动保护强化了上市公司的上述行为。进一步研究发现，在民营性质和劳动密集度较高的上市公司中，为了获取劳动力市场比较优势，企业跨区域配置资本的可能性较大，劳动保护对上述关系的强化作用也较明显。     

市场化能够消除歧视吗?——来自"身高溢价"的证据

市场化改革能改善资源配置效率,对中国的劳动力市场具有重要影响.文章使用中国家庭追踪调查2014年数据(CFPS2014),结合中国分省份市场化指数数据,分析了增进地区市场化程度对消除身高歧视的作用.结果表明:首先,我国劳动力市场存在"身高溢价"现象,即身高对收入具有显著正影响,并且身高优势有助于劳动力获得白领职业和进入具有较高职业声望的职业类别.其次,通过"中介作用"模型对其影响机理进行分析发现,身高溢价很可能是来自于劳动力市场上的雇主歧视行为,而非消费者歧视或个体在受教育水平、认知能力及非认知能力等人力资本方面的差异.最后,"身高溢价"现象具有明显的地区异质性,在相对欠发达的地区其影响更具显著性,而增进地区市场化程度能够显著降低劳动力市场的外貌特征歧视.     

Relation between growth and unemployment in a model with labor-force participation and adverse labor institutions

Based on labor search models with an exogenous labor force, existing papers have found a negative relation between long-run economic growth and unemployment. Motivated by the fact that the labor force participation has changed substantially across OECD countries, this paper revisits the long-run relation by taking account of endogenous labor-force participation. We find that, via the effects on employment, changes in labor market institutions may increase or decrease long-run economic growth. Moreover, depending upon the effects on the labor force and employment, these labor market institutions may increase or decrease unemployment rates in the long run. Thus, changes in labor market institutions lead to a non-monotone relation between long-run economic growth and unemployment that is consistent with the data.     

Cash Transfers to the Poor and the Labor Market: An Equilibrium Analysis

This paper studies the effects of cash transfers to the poor on the labor market. This is investigated in a matching model with endogenous labor market participation and job destruction. Depending on their productivity, workers might want to stay in the job, become unemployed, or leave the labor market; in addition, workers out of the labor force might decide to search for a job. Cash transfers are introduced to all agents with income below a given level. Two qualitative results are found: (i) The size of cash transfers has a negative effect on the employment rate, but an ambiguous effect on the unemployment rate; and (ii) the coverage of this welfare program has a positive effect on the employment rate, and an ambiguous effect on the unemployment rate. The numerical simulations also show that: (i) if the government target is to reduce inequality and poverty, the more efficient policy is to increase the level of benefits instead of increasing the eligibility of the program; (ii) compared with a welfare program that condition eligibility to labor market participation, the “unconditional” cash transfer program has a stronger impact on inequality and poverty, but with a reduction in labor market participation and output.     

The British labor market in disequilibrium: Did the dole reduce employment in interwar Britain?

In this paper we estimate an econometric model of the labor market in interwar Britain. We reject the hypothesis that wages adjust sufficiently speedily to clear the labor market in each year in favor of a disequilibrium model in which the level of employment is determined by the lesser of labor demand or supply. We find that the level of unemployment benefits is a key determinant of labor supply. We estimate that a reduction in benefits to approximately half the 1925-38 average would have resulted in an increase in employment of between eight and twelve percent.     

Industry structure and labor market flexibility in the South African manufacturing sector: A time series and panel data approach

This paper presents a joint analysis of labor market flexibility and product market structure. Our investigation confirms earlier results of imperfect competition in South African manufacturing where we find an average mark-up of 50% for the period 1970 to 2004 that is without consistent trend over time. The contribution of the paper is to provide a theoretically grounded means of linking output market conduct to labor market flexibility. We infer the proportion of labor associated with rigidities in the labor market from the mark-up, and find that two thirds of total labor employed in South African manufacturing is associated with rigidities. We find that this proportion falls during the 1980s and rises during the 1990s, suggesting an increase in labor flexibility followed by a decrease.     

A model of local labor market reguiation of Chin in the transition period

With the establishment of labor market of China,market is playing a more and more important role in allocation of human resources.However,with the transition of economy in China and industrial upgrading in recent years,many labor problems have occurred which do harm to the sustainable development of local economy.The paper researches on the labor market issues of China from the perspective of local labor market regulation,Firstly,reviews the theories of local labor market regulation.And then the main components of local labor market regulation of China are identified and the evaluation index system is established,The results of analysis of the calculated output show that (1) the local labor market regulation of China has an obvious character of gradient distribution geographically and decreases gradually from east to west;(2) of all the regulations,the regulation of the development of human capital has the most significant impact on local economy currently which is followed by the regulation of laborrelation and the regulation of market participation.As to the regulation of social security,it has no significant impact on the development of local economy.     

Inflation persistence: The path of labor market structural reforms

In this paper, using a monetary policy framework where the central banker is considered as conservative, we investigate the role of labor market structural reforms in inflation dynamics. Our theoretical model suggests that a more deregulated labor market reduces inflation persistence. Using data from a large sample of OECD countries over the period 2000–2012, we empirically confirm our theoretical proposition. The main policy implication is that the reduction of inflation persistence can be addressed not only by central banks, but also by governments through the path of labor market structural reforms.     

Labor market decisions of married women: With emphasis on part-time employment

Part-time employment may be viewed as a bridge between nonemployment and full-time employment or as an alternative to full-time employment. For married women with young children, part-time employment represents an efficient labor market solution to balancing the responsibilities of career and family. This paper estimates the probability of part-time employment for married women by utilizing a multinomial logit model for data extracted from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics [2000]. The paper focuses on the analysis of qualitative dependent variables to predict the probabilities for three distinct labor market decisions. The sample is further stratified to capture the effects of age on a married woman's labor market decision. A clearer picture of part-time employment should provide important insight into the labor market decisions of married women.     

Is product boycott a good idea for controlling child labor? A theoretical investigation

A popular form of action to curb child labor and uphold international labor standards in general is a ‘product boycott’ by consumers. There are labeling agencies that inform us if, for instance, a carpet or a hand-stitched soccer ball is free of child labor. The presence of a consumer boycott will typically mean that products tainted by child labor will command a lower price on the market than ones certified to be untainted. It is popularly presumed that such consumer activism is desirable. The paper formally investigates this presumption and shows that consumer product boycotts can, in a wide class of situations, have an adverse reaction that causes child labor to rise rather than fall. This happens under weak and plausible assumptions. Hence, there has to be much greater caution in the use of consumer activism, and one has to have much more detailed information about the context where child labor occurs, before using a boycott.     

Families and firms: Agency costs and labor market imperfections in Sialkot's surgical industry

The family firm is generally viewed as an organizational solution to agency costs in the labor market for managers and institutional underdevelopment. Consistent with this view, this paper links the preponderance of family firms in the surgical instrument industry of Sialkot to the prevailing agency and institutional problems. However, strong dependence on family management coupled with restrictions on family size constrains the firms from optimally choosing management size. The resulting labor market distortion is manifested by a significant positive correlation between the founder's family size and the firm size such that the founders who have more brothers (a larger pool of potential managers) end up with bigger firms.     

劳动力转移与工资差距同时扩大的“悖论”研究——基于市场分割的视角

从市场分割的角度出发,对劳动力流动与工资差距同时扩大的"悖论"和中国市场化过程中的"迁移谜题"进行了深入分析,认为劳动力市场的地区分割和城乡分割导致了劳动者之间必然存在工资收入差距,而且即使存在劳动力转移,也不能使工资差距收敛。这种制度性偏好导致的劳动力市场分割,对劳动者工资收入差距的扩大起了推波助澜的作用,因此构建全国统一、自由竞争的劳动力市场是非常必要的,并提出有关的政策建议。     

从民工潮到民工荒: 基于劳动力市场管制视角的分析

自2004年春开始,曾引起社会各界关注多年的民工潮逐步被以农民工短缺为特征的民工荒所取代.从民工潮到民工荒的转变绝不仅仅是表面上的农民工由富余到短缺,其实是一种使多层次矛盾得以凸显的劳动力市场现象.从劳动力市场管制角度看,民工荒现象凸显了我国劳动力市场管制中存在的制度缺陷和管制失灵;而要破解民工荒,改善对劳动力市场特别是农民工市场的管制,无疑是一种必然选择.本文从劳动力市场管制视角对民工荒现象所蕴含的社会意义、产生原因及解决对策做一分析.     

就业再选择与劳动力市场效率

本文认为就业再选择是劳动力市场的基本特征。通过就业再选择使企业内部劳动力市场与外部劳动力市场连接在一起而成为一个整体。劳动者进行就业再选择的频度和难易程度,决定企业内外劳动力市场一体化的程度和劳动力市场的效率水平。因此,企业的人力资源管理,则必须摆脱“员工属于组织”的传统观念,以员工的就业再选择为出发点,并且,促进劳动者进行就业再选择才是建立健全劳动力市场机制的根本途径。     

Matching in segmented labor markets: An analytical proposal based on high-dimensional contingency tables

The Spanish economy has a very problematic labor market characterized by high and persistent levels of unemployment, elevated long-term unemployment, strong segmentation and low regional mobility, among other drawbacks. This paper uses labor matching data from a large database of administrative microdata (Continuous Sample of Working Lives, MCVL) and structures them into a contingency table which cross-classifies the information of workers and jobs at provincial and occupational levels. The association analysis performed allows us to identify a more precise vision of the structure of the labor market, and a better design regarding active labor market policies. Our results demonstrate, for example, that highly isolated markets and those that influence the entire national territory coexist in the Spanish labor market. Finally, we also propose a new smoothing method in order to deal with typical statistical problems in sparse contingency tables, such as the existence of non-structural zero frequencies or sparsity.     

Labor Market Institutions and the Role of Elites in Flexicurity Societies

The paper argues that a process of capital accumulation exhibiting recurrent mass unemployment—due to the conflict over income distribution—does not represent a process that is adequate for a democratic society in the long run. The paper develops a basic macrodynamic framework where this process of cyclical growth is overcome by an ‘employer of first resort’ (an entity that provides employment security but not job security), added to an economic reproduction process that is highly competitive (flexible). Such a flexicurity system is characterized by high labor and capital mobility, with fluctuations of employment in the private sector made socially acceptable through a second labor market where all remaining workers are able to find meaningful occupation and sufficient income. We study on this basis a disaggregation of the labor market into skilled and high-skilled labor, as well as professional and political elites. The stability and sustainability propositions of the homogeneous labor case generalize to this extended situation.     

基于买方市场的劳工标准移植研究

市场的竞争促使越来越多发展中国家的企业成为劳工认证供应链的一部分。本文基于买方主导型市场结构,运用信息租模型分析劳工标准在中国移植状况。研究表明,高劳工标准的存在,是供应商追求信息租金和采购商追求真实剩余博弈的均衡;当供应商类型分布不满足单调风险率性质时,会出现低标准混同均衡,也是采购商借助买方市场势力极大化真实剩余的结果;当采购商风险偏好属于规避型时,最后均衡劳工标准较之风险中性时要高,同时买卖双方福利都会提高。     

Work supply and constitutional order

James Buchanan has suggested resolving the issue of labor supply and increasing returns by introducing the concept of a work ethic. This paper offers some additional thoughts to the solution that Buchanan has developed by taking a historical perspective. It was the choice between labor supply to the market and self-employment rather than a choice between work and leisure that the early worker in the transitional period to industrialized labor was confronted with. Starting with this point of view, I argue that the critical motivation for increasing labor supply to the market was the prospect of reaping more benefits under the newly organized firms compared to the benefits that the system of simple labor-ownership rule generated. The paper concludes that entrepreneurship, which promotes the division of labor both within firms as well as among firms, performs a decisive role in increasing labor supply. This in turn made possible the transformation of the constitutional order from the pre-industrialized society to the more advanced civil society of today.     

Unemployment dispersion and the allocative efficiency of the labor market

An idea that seems to gain recurrent popularity in the economics profession is that, because of technological change, changes in consumer demand, skill mismatches, and the like, the unemployed tend to become concentrated or trapped in particular geographic areas and that for these reasons unemployment rates have grown more disparate over time. This paper examines the theoretical conditions necessary for the above argument to hold and shows that such conditions are not consistent with the notion of a competitive labor market. The paper then examines various measures of unemployment-rate dispersion in order to determine whether or not unemployment rates have indeed drifted further apart over time. The empirical evidence presented indicates unequivocally that geographic unemployment rates are neither more nor less dispersed now than they were twenty years ago. The results, therefore, suggest that the competitive view of the labor market is appropriate and that the hypothesis that unemployment rates have become more dispersed over time because of structural imperfections in the labor market should be rejected.     

Job search and academic achievement

The paper develops a structural model for the labor market behavior of students entering the labor market. We explicitly model the trade-off between devoting effort to studying and to job search. Furthermore, we allow for on-the-job search. The model is estimated using a unique data set of individuals who completed undergraduate education in the Netherlands between 1995 and 2001. Our estimation results show that labor market returns of high grades are low. Wage increases between jobs are explained by labor market friction rather than returns of early work experience. Our results indicate that a 1 percentage point decrease in the unemployment rate increases wage offers on average by 3 percent, but that the amount of job search effort is not very sensitive to business cycle fluctuations. Policy simulations show that study effort and hence academic achievement are much more sensitive to financial incentives than job search effort and labor market outcomes.