AGING, JOB MOBILITY, AND COMPENSATION

Age and tenure are negatively correlated with job mobility.Mobility patterns therefore change over the lifetime. In thispaper we analyze job mobility patterns and the way they changewith age and tenure. A novelty is that the effects of financialincentives (wage differentials), mobility costs, and non-financialincentives (the shadow price for physically arduous labour)are disentangled. It is shown how these elements change withage. The results confirm our hypotheses. The rapid decline inmobility with age is simultaneously caused by declining financialgains, rising costs, and a higher shadow price for older workers.     

EFFECT OF IT JOB TRAINING ON EMPLOYMENT AND WAGE PREMIUM: EVIDENCE FROM KOREA PANEL DATA

In this paper, we examine whether IT job training raises the probability of getting employed and enables the trainee to obtain a high wage. In this paper, it is reported that, in the Republic of Korea, IT job training as a whole affects not only employment but also wage premium, even though the effect on wage premium is somewhat less conspicuous. In particular, the intensity of IT job training is more instrumental in the opportunity of getting employed than simply whether receiving IT job training or not. This effect is intensified in the low‐education group. In this group, the probability for the persons who undergo IT job training for more than six months of getting employed is higher than that for a person without any job training. Additionally, provision of IT job training by a private institute and cost sharing with the government enhances the opportunity of employment.     

SHEEPSKIN EFFECTS BY COHORT: IMPLICATIONS OF JOB MATCHING IN A SIGNALING MODEL

In the presence of job matching, the returns to education signalsare shown to decline in value as additional work experienceallows more direct observation of productivity. This is testedby estimating sheepskin effects across five age cohorts of non-minoritymales in 1991. The effects are large and significant in earlycohorts and virtually nonexistent in later cohorts. This patternis partially confirmed with estimations within cohorts showingsheepskin returns declining from 1979 to 1991. The pattern withincohorts suggests that the 1991 pattern is not merely the resultof vintage effects but caution is expressed in drawing conclusions.     

REGIONAL TIES AND DISCRIMINATION: POLITICAL CHANGE,ECONOMIC CRISIS,AND JOB DISPLACEMENTS IN SOUTH KOREA, 1997–99

Probing into the incidence of job displacements during the 1997–99 recession period, this study offers theoretically grounded micro‐causal explanations for regional ties and regional discrimination in South Korea. Our statistical analysis reveals the significant impact of a worker's birth region (the basis of regional ties and discrimination) on the layoff process. Native Kyongsang workers are found to have faced higher rates of layoff in Seoul‐Kyongki regional firms than native Jolla workers during the recession period. The Kyongsang–Jolla layoff rate gap is mainly due to differential treatment rather than a difference in observable characteristics. The findings suggest that the problem of regional ties and regional discrimination is more deep‐rooted and widespread in South Korea than previously reported.     

BOOMING SECTOR AND WAGE EFFECTS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS ON NORWEGIAN DATA

Within the framework of a segmented labour market model, andunder the assumption of market clearing wages in all sub-markets,this paper analyzes demand and cost-of-living effects whicha booming sector may create. The tests are based on data beforeand after the most intensive building-up period of the Norwegianpetroleum sector The empirical results indicate significantdemand effects for the most petroleum relevant occupations,and also positive cost-of-living effects in areas which areregionally close to this sector Overall there is evidence thatthe Norwegian petroleum sector has caused weak manufacturingperformance     

THE EVOLUTION OF GENDER EARNINGS GAPS AND DISCRIMINATION IN URBAN CHINA, 1988–95

This paper analyzes the impact of market liberalization on gender earnings differentials and discrimination against women in urban China at the beginning of the 1990s. The observed stability in the overall gender earnings gap between 1988 and 1995 is shown to result from a complex set of evolutions across enterprises, earnings distributions, and time. Our results highlight the interplay of opposing forces, with economic reforms contributing to changes in managers’ behaviors in different dimensions. On the one hand, by bringing more competition, liberalization favored a reduction in discriminating behaviors in both urban collectives and foreign‐invested enterprises; on the other hand, by relaxing institutional rules, it led to a loosening of the government's egalitarian wage‐setting policies, leaving more space for discrimination in state‐owned enterprises.     

MICROFINANCE REVOLUTION: ITS EFFECTS,INNOVATIONS, AND CHALLENGES

“Microfinance revolution” is the term often applied to the successful expansion of small-scale financial services to the poor with high repayment records in developing countries. The present paper investigates the extent to which the microfinance revolution is truly revolutionary. More specifically, it explores the impact of microfinance institutions on the poor, the mechanisms underlying high repayment rates and their innovations, and the new challenges microfinance institutions are currently facing. Different from the existing published survey literature, we focus on current topics and attempt to show recent theoretical developments in a comprehensive manner using simplified models with very similar settings. We contend that microfinance is developing in a promising direction but has yet to reach its full potential.     

MARGINAL TAX REFORM AND THE SPECIFICATION OF CONSUMER DEMAND SYSTEMS

This paper examines the conjecture that tax reform recommendationsare not as sensitive to underlying consumer demand systems asare derived optimal tax rates. Tax reform recommendations forIreland using the Ahmad-Stern model of indirect tax reform withdifferent underlying consumer demand systems are examined. Theyare found to exhibit little sensitivity to the underlying deterministicdemand system, but they do display considerable sensitivityto dynamic specification. They also display sensitivity withregard to the imposition of the restrictions implied by utilitymaximisation, especially symmetry.     

THE DISTRIBUTION OF MALE AND FEMALE EARNINGS 1973--91: EVIDENCE FOR BRITAIN

This paper analyses the major developments in the structureof male and female pay in Britain between 1973 and 1991 Theseare the narrowing of the gender pay gap and the increasing inequalityof male and female earnings The first innovation is decomposingthe changing gender pay gap into three components: prices, characteristics,and unmeasured (residual) effects at any percentile level ofinterest to the investigator. An important role for prices innarrowing the gender gap is found and the second innovationis a method to identify which prices are critical Qualificationsturn out to be the key factor.     

EFFECTS OF THE REAL EXCHANGE RATE ON OUTPUT AND INFLATION: EVIDENCE FROM TURKEY

This paper assesses the effects of real depreciation on the economic performance of Turkey by considering quarterly data from 1987:I to 2001:III. The empirical evidence suggests that, contrary to classical wisdom, the real depreciations are contractionary, even when external factors like world interest rates, international trade, and capital flows are controlled. Moreover, the results obtained from the analyses indicate that real exchange rate depreciations are inflationary.     

REFORM OF ECONOMIC LAWS AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE POST‐CRISIS INDONESIAN ECONOMY

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the economic laws some of which were introduced in the IMF‐led post‐crisis reforms to address serious problems faced by the Indonesian economy. It is argued in the study that the economic law reform has not been as effective as expected since the implementation of a law has not conformed with legal policy. The objective of the legal policy of the Bankruptcy Act, which was enacted in accordance with IMF conditionality, was to liquidate insolvent domestic companies and to relieve foreign creditors. At the implementation stage, however, the ruling of the commercial courts was often handed down against creditors. The ineffective implementation was due to several factors; one of them was judges' defensive reaction to possible hostile takeover by foreign creditors.